In the espionage affair of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the investigators have succeeded.
As the federal prosecutor announced on Thursday, a suspected courier was arrested on Sunday.
The German citizen Arthur E. is said to have transported the secret information to Moscow and handed it over to a Russian intelligence service, which he had previously received from the BND employee and suspected Russian spy Carsten L.
Markus Wehner
Political correspondent in Berlin.
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E., who has been in custody since Monday, is accused of treason as an accomplice.
He is said to have known Carsten L., but was not an employee of the BND himself.
Officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) arrested him as he was arriving from the United States at Munich Airport;
the investigations were carried out together with the BND and the American federal police, the FBI.
The espionage case in the BND became known shortly before Christmas after Carsten L., a 52-year-old Bundeswehr colonel from Weilheim, had been arrested for suspected espionage for Russia.
L. had worked as a department head in the technical reconnaissance department in Pullach, but had recently been transferred to Berlin in the course of the reorganization of the BND.
In his new position, he was also involved in the security screening of BND employees, as the FAZ was confirmed.
L. is said to have been frustrated by his work, and according to information, money was also paid for his services as a spy.