German authorities have carried out a raid on the residence of a protection ministry official suspected of passing secrets and techniques to the US, only one week after the arrest of a German intelligence officer who labored as a double agent.
Officials from the Federal Prosecutor’s Office mentioned Wednesday that residential and workplace premises of the employees of the Federal Ministry of Defense in Berlin have been searched on “initial suspicion of activity for an intelligence agency.”
According to the German newspaper Die Welt, a soldier of the Bundeswehr is suspected of committing espionage. The particular person was mentioned to have made “intensive contacts” with alleged US intelligence officers and was below the surveillance of the Military Intelligence (MAD) a while in the past.
“When sufficient evidence existed, the case was handed over to the federal prosecutor,” safety sources informed the paper.
The information comes only one week after a 31-year-old German intelligence official was arrested on suspicion of spying for a “foreign power” since 2012. German media reported the double agent, who has not been recognized, labored on behalf of the CIA.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition associate, Yasmin Fahimi, basic secretary of the Social Democrats (SPD), has urged the “immediate removal of embassy staff involved and the immediate cessation of all other espionage in our country,” in line with Reuters.
US Ambassador John Emerson has been known as in to fulfill a senior official on the German overseas ministry early on Wednesday to clarify the BND case. According to a ministry spokesman, Emerson was anticipated to make clear the scenario. Emerson was beforehand summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Friday following information of the primary case.
Meanwhile, the United States has not denied allegations that the German intelligence officer arrested earlier was passing secret recordsdata to the US National Security Agency (NSA).
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke on Monday following the preliminary spy investigations, declaring, “It would be a clear contradiction of what I consider to be trusting co-operation” with the United States.
Relations between Berlin and Washington, representatives of NATO’s two largest members, have been already strained after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden final yr launched paperwork displaying that the NSA was conducting wide-scale surveillance on German residents’ communications – as much as and together with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s private cellphone.