Berlin Court of Appeal holds hearing on alleged Russian espionage at BND
As a court spokeswoman explained, the two are said to have established a kind of business relationship: L. is said to have passed on information that was available to him as a BND employee to E.. As a businessman, E. had good connections to Russia, including in the precious metal trade in Africa. He is said to have established the connection to the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB.
According to the indictment, confidential information from the BND was then passed on to the FSB. This allegedly included information on the war in Ukraine - information that is said to have been particularly important for both Germany and Russia. The federal prosecutor's office assumes that the two received several hundred thousand euros for this.
L. was arrested in December 2022, E. in January. Both defendants are in custody. The court extended the arrest warrant against them to include the risk of concealment. There were findings that L. and E. could have contacted each other without permission while in custody.
They may have exchanged information that could influence the proceedings, the spokeswoman explained. The two are now also no longer allowed to take part in community events. However, the defense has taken action against this tightening, which in turn has not yet been decided.
The trial is due to continue on Thursday. By then, it should also be decided whether the part of the indictment that was previously considered secret for security reasons will be read out in public. The spokeswoman said that the defendants had also announced that they would make statements. However, it was unclear whether they wanted to say anything about the content of the accusations.
Carsten L.'s lawyer accused the court of not making an effort to clarify "manipulations". If convicted of treason in a particularly serious case, the defendants face a life sentence. The Berlin Court of Appeal scheduled a total of 51 trial days until July. The trial began on Wednesday with a significant delay due to the large number of people attending.
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Source: www.stern.de
