An officer of the German Bundeswehr has been before the Oberlandesgericht in Düsseldorf since Monday on charges of particularly serious espionage for Russia. The man confessed that he had served Russia as a spy with military information. The 54-year-old testified before the Düsseldorf High Court on Monday that he was driven by fear of a nuclear escalation in the war in Ukraine.
As a captain in the Bundeswehr, the suspect was responsible for electronic warfare systems, a representative of the federal prosecutor’s office said when the indictment was read out. His goal was “to give the Russian armed forces an advantage against the background of the current political situation.”
He loaded information from a Bundeswehr drive onto a CD and placed it in the mailbox of the Russian consulate. He also took photos of Air Force training documents with his cell phone.
Information? “Please More”
From May 2023 onwards, the captain sent confidential information several times to the Russian consulate in Bonn and the Russian embassy in Berlin, adding: “I would like more”. Although he received no response, he tried again and again: by mail, by email, with phone calls from the Internet and from a payphone.
He advertised himself as an agent by saying that the knowledge he could provide “would represent a significant asset to the Russian Armed Forces and the Russian Federation.” The suspect risks a prison sentence of ten years.
Actively seeking membership of the AfD
The man himself said that, at a time when he was particularly afraid of nuclear war, he had also contacted the right-wing populist AfD party and applied for membership. According to the court, his application for membership was approved in July 2023. The defendant stated that he had previously contacted the Left Party. However, he was repelled by their fundamental rejection of the Bundeswehr.
TikTok message as trigger
A message, “probably on TikTok,” gave him the impetus to contact the Russian consulate. The captain admitted that he had followed a pro-Russian AfD-affiliated influencer on TikTok at the time. But he doesn’t remember exactly what message it was.
He wanted to be able to get his family to safety in time. He reached out to the Russian side to obtain timely information on “when it will explode.” “I only saw this path.” Today he deeply regrets this and, looking back, sees it as a mistake. He was in a very bad mental state at the time.
The officer is in custody
Officials of the Federal Criminal Police arrested the captain on August 9, 2023 in Koblenz. He has been in custody since then. At that time, emergency services searched the suspect’s apartment and workplace. The Senate, presided over by Judge Lars Bachler, has scheduled seven days of hearings for the trial until June 24.
Source: Krone
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