The trial against a German officer begins.
In the state of NRW, the trial against a reserve officer of the German army has started. He has allegedly been giving classified information to the Russians for years. The 65-year-old must answer before the High Regional Court of Düsseldorf where he is accused of espionage.
According to the federal prosecutor, the reserve officer from the country Erkrath provided the Russian secret service GRU with information on German reservists and civil-military cooperation in crisis situations between 2014 and 2020. It is also about the effects of the sanctions imposed on Russia in 2014 and the pipeline Nord Stream 2 in the Baltic Sea.
In addition, the accused is said to have provided the Russians with the private contact details of senior members of the Bundeswehr and business representatives. The security and defense policy of the US and its Western allies is another issue that is mentioned. According to the indictment, the documents and information came partly from public sources, but also from non-public sources.
In the Bundeswehr reserve, the lieutenant colonel was in a district liaison command as vice president. In two informative conversations, he largely admitted that he provided information, said a spokeswoman for the court. The federal prosecutor’s office suspects sympathy for Russia as a motive. In the investigations so far, there are no records of cash payments for services. But the accused had hoped for advantages such as invitations to security conferences in Russia – such invitations he had.
According to the 107-page indictment, the military counterintelligence service (MAD) was informed about the reserve officer in 2018. He was recruited by two secret service employees who were officially military attachés at the Russian embassy.
The court has scheduled 20 days of hearings on this issue, until mid-December 2022.