Oleg Davygora18:15, 12/14/23

A Bundeswehr colonel who headed the security department of the German Federal Intelligence Service is on trial in Berlin.

The trial of 52-year-old Bundeswehr Colonel Karsten L. began in the sixth panel of the Berlin High Court. He headed the security department of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND).

He is accused of treason and disclosing state secrets to Russian intelligence services. Along with him, diamond merchant and ex-Bundeswehr private Arthur E. is being tried. The trial will last at least until the summer. During this time, 51 meetings are planned to be held. 40 volumes of documents were involved in the case, writes  BILD.

According to investigators, the accused sold key intelligence information about the war in Ukraine to the FSB. For this they received more than 800,000 euros. According to BILD, the BND considers this one of the most serious cases of treason in the history of Germany, the extent of the damage cannot be measured. Karsten L. was arrested in Berlin on December 21, 2022. They hunted for the traitor in the BND for a week; decisive information came from the intelligence services of a friendly state.

According to Spiegel, at first Karsten L. gained access to the closed chat of the Wagner PMC mercenaries, took screenshots and handed them over to the FSB. He then also took 73 pages of screenshots of internal BND chats. Arthur E. took them to Moscow and received money for it. 

Karsten L. refuses to testify. According to BILD, he continues to receive a salary of 7,613 euros per month from the state. Colleagues believe that his betrayal was prompted by disagreement with the migration and economic policies of the German authorities.

Russian spies in Europe

The UK Crown Prosecution Service has charged five Bulgarian citizens with spying for Russia. The accused, Orlin Rusev, Bizer Dzhambazov, Ivan Stoyanov, Katrin Ivanova and Vanya Gaberova, collected information that could pose a threat to the security and interests of Great Britain from August 30, 2020 to February 8, 2023, the department said in a statement.

(C)UNIAN 2023