German intelligence employee and acquaintance charged with treason for passing secrets to Russia

By GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — Prosecutors say an employee of Germany’s foreign intelligence service and an acquaintance have been charged with treason for allegedly passing secret documents to Russia. The intelligence officer was arrested in Berlin last December. The second suspect is a self-employed German businessman. He was arrested at Munich airport in January as he arrived from the United States. Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service or BND said at the time of the first arrest that it brought in prosecutors immediately after internal investigations substantiated information about a possible case of treason. The BND officer allegedly supplied a total of nine documents related to a project on technical intelligence gathering on two occasions between mid-September and early October last year.