German police arrest man accused of spying for Russia while working at British embassy

Germany has arrested a British citizen on suspicion of spying for Russia while working at the UK embassy in Berlin.

Federal prosecutors said in a statement the man was detained on Tuesday in the city of Potsdam, south-west of the capital, based on cooperative investigations by German and British authorities.

In keeping with German privacy laws, the accused was only identified as David S.

Prosecutors said he was suspected of having spied for the Russian intelligence service since at least November.

Before his arrest, he worked at the British embassy in the German capital and allegedly passed on documents he received at work to the Russians, the prosecutors’ statement said.

It is unlikely the suspect has diplomatic immunity because in such a case a person would normally be expelled from the country instead of detained.

Germany’s Foreign Minister said the government was following the case closely.

“We take the information that the detained person’s intelligence activity was carried out on behalf of a Russian intelligence agency extremely seriously,” Heiko Maas told reporters in Berlin.

“Spying on a close ally on German soil is absolutely unacceptable and we are in full solidarity with our British friends,” he said.

“We will be following the federal prosecutors’ further investigations very closely. And where that’s desired, necessary and possible, we will also support them.”

The Russian embassy in Berlin declined to comment on reports about the arrest, the Interfax news agency reported.

The embassy “currently does not have any official information from the German side on this issue”, Interfax quoted the embassy’s spokespeople as saying.

Suspected allegedly received cash for espionage

Britain’s Metropolitan (Met) Police said in a statement: “The man was arrested in the Berlin area on suspicion of committing offences relating to being engaged in ‘intelligence agent activity’.”

“Primacy for the investigation remains with German authorities,” the Met statement read, while “officers from the Counter Terrorism Command continue to liaise with German counterparts as the investigation continues.”

The Met’s Counter Terrorism Command is responsible for investigating alleged breaches of the Official Secrets Act.

German prosecutors said the suspect received an unknown amount of cash in return for his alleged spying activities.

Investigators had searched his home and office, the statement added.

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the man to remain under arrest pending further investigation.

The German federal prosecutor’s office said it could not provide any further details about the case because of the ongoing investigation and the man’s privacy rights.

The British government provided few details about the embassy worker.

In a statement, it said: “An individual who was contracted to work for the government was arrested yesterday by the German authorities.

“It would not be appropriate to comment further as there is an ongoing police investigation.”

‘The capital of spies’

During the Cold War, Berlin was dubbed “the capital of spies” because the city was on the front line of the confrontation between the Soviets in the East and the Americans and their western allies in the West.

Intelligence agents were active on both sides of the divided city and sometimes — after some espionage agents were caught — there were infamous cloak-and-dagger exchanges of captured spies on the Glienicker Bridge.

However, since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the unification of Germany a year later, and the end of the Cold War, espionage activities in Berlin have supposedly decreased.

AP