In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Investigations against constitutional protection officers for betrayal of secrets

The Federal Prosecutor's Office is investigating an employee of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for treason. The Ministry of the Interior in Schwerin announced on Friday evening that it had promised the Attorney General "full support" in the investigation. "All documents required in this regard have been and will be handed over by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution," said Interior Minister Torsten Renz (CDU). He announced that he would inform the parliamentary control commission of the state parliament about the matter. The employee concerned had been given leave of absence as a precaution. The presumption of innocence applies, it said.

According to the information, the investigations go back to events in 2020. The ministry did not provide any further details. According to research by Spiegel magazine and MDR, a former undercover agent is said to have been involved in the planned murder of a Chechen activist near Munich. The intelligence officer is suspected of having given the informant the Chechen's address. The former undercover agent has been in custody since the end of last year. The murder plan was exposed because a second man hired by Chechnya as a killer had surrendered to the German authorities.

Spiegel and MDR reported in April that Chechen activist Mochmad Abdurachmanov was apparently about to be shot by a paid killer near Munich. The plan for the murder is said to have been forged in the power center of the authoritarian Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya. According to the investigation, two men from Chechnya were charged with the crime. One of the two, Tamirlan A., asserts, according to Spiegel, that he only pretended to have accepted the offer of a sum of money for the murder before he surrendered to the German authorities.

According to Spiegel, the investigators found a Makarov pistol including a silencer in the second suspect, the former undercover agent Walid D. According to the investigators, the weapon should be used for the planned murder of Abdurachmanov. According to the report, D. had his defense lawyer explain that he did not know how the pistol got into his apartment. According to Spiegel, the federal prosecutor's office is investigating the matter because of state terrorism.