Düsseldorf court sentences former soldier to three and a half years in prison for sharing secret military information with Russia.
A former German soldier has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for sharing secret military information with Russia after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
A court in Dusseldorf found the defendant, identified only as Thomas H, guilty of transmitting information on his own initiative from his position in the military procurement service.
In handing down the sentence on Monday, the judges noted that Thomas had no previous crimes on his record, had not materially benefited from aid to Russia and was in poor health at the time he did so.
The 54-year-old admitted the crime during the trial, claiming that he hoped to obtain information in exchange that would help him get his family to safety in time, in case the conflict escalated into nuclear war.
The espionage case is one of several discovered in Germany since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Prosecutors accused Thomas of photographing old training documents related to munitions systems and aircraft technology and dropping the material in the mailbox of the Russian consulate in Bonn.
The defendant “approached the Russian consulate general in Bonn and the Russian embassy in Berlin and offered his cooperation” in May 2023, prosecutors said.
“He passed on information he obtained in the course of his professional activities to be passed on to a Russian intelligence service.”
‘Stupid idea’
Thomas admitted at the opening of his trial in April that the allegations against him were “broadly” accurate. “I was wrong. I stand by that,” he said.
He said his concern about a possible escalation of the war in Ukraine led him to contact the Russian side.
More precisely, he was concerned that Berlin’s deliveries of heavy weapons systems to Ukraine would draw Germany into the conflict.
Thomas also indicated that he was dissatisfied with the government and an apparent lack of concern for the safety of German citizens.
He cited complaints about his health after many difficult years working for the army and the long-term side effects of the coronavirus vaccine.
His many concerns led him into a “vicious circle,” he said, adding that he could no longer justify his actions to himself.
Until his arrest in August 2023, Thomas was a career soldier, working in the army’s equipment, information technology and in-service support department.
The department, which has about 12,000 employees, has seen its workload increase substantially since the start of the war in Ukraine, as the government carries out a broad review of the army after years of neglect.
Germany has been on high alert against Russian spies in the context of the war in Ukraine and growing tensions between Moscow and the West.
In April, German authorities arrested two German-Russian dual nationals on suspicion that they were planning sabotage attacks on US military installations in the country to undermine Western military support for Ukraine.
Russian authorities, in turn, have leveled treason charges against dozens of people accused of helping Ukraine and the West since the invasion.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
