THE German intelligence service was rocked yesterday as one of its employees was charged with treason for passing secret documents to Russia.

According to prosecutors, the intelligence officer, who, in line with German privacy rules, has been identified only as Carsten L, was arrested in Berlin on December 21. 

A second suspect, a self-employed German businessman identified as Arthur E, was held at Munich airport on January 22 as he arrived from the United States.

Germany’s BND federal intelligence service said at the time that it had brought in prosecutors as soon as internal investigations substantiated information about a possible case of treason.

Federal prosecutors said yesterday that Carsten L had been acquainted with Arthur E since May 2021 and that the latter was in contact with a Russia-based businessman with ties to the FSB, Russia’s domestic intelligence agency. 

The three allegedly met in September 2022 and conspired to procure sensitive BND information for the FSB.

Carsten L 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, printing them out or taking photos of them on his computer screen, prosecutors said in a statement.

The two men were charged at a Berlin court with two counts of “joint perpetration of especially serious treason,” prosecutors said, adding that the information passed to the Russians was classified as state secrets.

Germany has become one of the leading suppliers of military and financial aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.

In a previous 2016 case involving a suspected double agent at the agency, a former BND employee was convicted of violating Germany’s official secrets law and sentenced to eight years in prison for providing classified information, largely to the US’s CIA.