A suspected iranian spy in the german armed forces is expected to stand trial in koblenz soon. The federal prosecutor’s office has charged the man with treason in a particularly serious case before the higher regional court there. This was announced by the karlsruhe authorities on friday.
The german-afghan, whose age was given as 50 years at the time, was arrested in january in the rhineland. He is in custody. According to the investigators, he had been working for the army for many years as a translator and regional advisor. "In this capacity, he passed on information to an iranian intelligence service, whereby the documents passed on constituted a state secret," the federal prosecutor’s office announced. She accuses the man of violating official secrets in 18 cases.
"Spiegel online" had reported in january that the man had had access to "sensitive information, for example on the deployment of troops in afghanistan". He had spied for the iranian intelligence service mois.
The federal government had officially protested to the iranian government after the arrest. Iran denied the accusations at the time and denied any contact "with this alleged person". With such insinuations "enemies" wanted to sabotage the historical relations between iran and the EU.
Constitutional protection officers consider iran – like russia and china, and to some extent turkey – to be a major player in espionage activities against germany. Iranian intelligence services are also "constantly looking for suitable human sources in the military sector in order to be able to cover the information needs of the iranian regime," according to information from the federal office for the protection of the constitution.