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Germany holds UK embassy worker for spying

Marco Krefting, dpaAAP
German police arrested a man who worked at the UK's Berlin embassy.
Camera IconGerman police arrested a man who worked at the UK's Berlin embassy. Credit: AP

An employee of the British embassy in Berlin is under arrest for allegedly providing documents to Russian intelligence in exchange for money, German and UK law enforcement say.

The man was ordered to remain under arrest pending further inquiries after appearing before an investigating judge at Germany’s Federal Court of Justice.

In London, the Home Office confirmed the arrest, to which joint investigations by German and British authorities contributed.

The Foreign Office in Berlin stressed that it was taking the case very seriously.

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“Intelligence spying on a close alliance partner on German soil is not something we can accept,” a spokesperson said.

“That is why we will follow the further investigations by the federal prosecutor general very closely.”

According to the authorities, the man is under suspicion of intelligence agent activities.

He is said to have worked for the Russian secret service since November, at the latest.

On at least one occasion, he passed on material that he had obtained in the course of his work.

The man, who is only being identified as David S under Germany’s strict privacy laws, was arrested on Tuesday in Potsdam, outside of Berlin, on suspicion of having worked for a foreign intelligence agency since November, the German side said.

The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the UK parliament Tom Tugendhat told BBC Radio 4 that the suspect seemed to be “someone pretty far down the hierarchy who clearly made some unwise decisions and may have betrayed his country”.

It was not clear how much money he received in return from the representative of the Russian intelligence services with whom he met, read the statement, which described the suspect as a local hire at the UK embassy in the Germany capital.

Vladimir Putin
Camera IconRussian President Vladimir Putin. Credit: EPA

The accused’s home and workplace were also searched.

The British gave the suspect’s age as 57.

“The man was arrested in the Berlin area on suspicion of committing offences relating to being engaged in ‘intelligence agent activity’ (under German law),” the Metropolitan Police in London said in a statement.

“Primacy for the investigation remains with German authorities. Officers from the Counter Terrorism Command continue to liaise with German counterparts as the investigation continues,” the statement said.

The British opposition Labour Party used the case to accuse the government of failures in national security.

The position of state secretary, who is responsible for security, has been vacant for more than a month.

“Today’s events raise the question of who in the government is looking after the important job of keeping the British public safe,” Labour home affairs spokesman Conor McGinn said.

He added it was incomprehensible that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has not yet found a new state secretary.

“Either he has forgotten or he thinks it is not that important,” McGinn said.

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