German prosecutors announced that the authorities had arrested on Wednesday a German intelligence employee suspected of passing information to an intelligence service in Russia.
The prosecution said, in a statement issued today, Thursday, that the German citizen - who was referred to as Carsten L, an employee of the Foreign Intelligence Service (BND) - was suspected of committing "high treason", and his apartment and work office were searched along with another person.
The prosecutor in Karlsruhe stated that he was suspected of "transferring in 2022 information he obtained in the course of his professional activities to the Russian intelligence services," noting that the content of this information is a state secret.
The suspect - who was arrested in Berlin - appeared before an investigating judge, who decided to place him in pretrial detention.
For his part, German Foreign Intelligence Director Bruno Kahl said in a statement that "restraint and secrecy are very important in this particular case. With Russia we are dealing with a party whose lack of conscience and tendency to violence must be taken into account."
Kahl added that "every detail made public in this case represents an element of advantage for this adversary in his endeavor to harm Germany."
In Germany, many cases of espionage for Russia were revealed in recent years, as happened in other European countries.
Since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine, the intelligence services have once again raised the alert level.
On November 18, a German reserve officer in Dusseldorf was sentenced to one year and 9 months in prison, on charges of spying for Russia.