Germany convicts former Bundeswehr officer for spying in Russia's favor

DW reported the information.

According to the decision of the Higher Land Court in Düsseldorf, adopted on Monday, May 27, 54-year-old Thomas was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

The man was detained in the summer of 2023, when the German Federal Prosecutor's Office accused him of passing on information to the Russian secret service that he had received while working for the Federal Office for Arms, Information Technology and the Use of the Bundeswehr, located in Koblenz.

The defendant admitted his guilt and the fact that he had been contacting the Russian Consulate General in Bonn and the Russian Embassy in Berlin since May 2023 on his own initiative with a proposal to transfer classified information at a court hearing last month. As for his motives, Thomas H. explained that he was driven by fear of the threat of nuclear war in Ukraine.

Background: Thomas H. worked for the agency responsible for purchasing weapons for the Bundeswehr, which annually signs defense contracts worth billions of euros, purchasing the necessary equipment for the German armed forces.

• On May 9, a court in Poland stripped judge Tomasz Schmidt of his immunity and authorized the arrest of a judge of the Voivodeship Administrative Court, who is involved in a case of working for foreign intelligence and fled to Belarus.