BERLIN (AP) – A German man is charged with espionage for allegedly passing on information about properties used by the German parliament to Russian military intelligence, prosecutors said on Thursday.
The suspect, identified only as Jens F. in accordance with German privacy rules, worked for a company that was repeatedly contracted by the Bundestag or the Bundestag lower house to control portable electrical appliances, the federal prosecutors said in ‘ a statement said.
As a result, he has access to PDF files with a map of the properties in question. The Bundestag is located in the Reichstag building, a landmark of Berlin, but also uses several other sites.
Prosecutors said that at some point in early September 2017, the suspect “voluntarily decided to give information about the properties to the Russian intelligence. They said he sent the PDF files to an employee of the Russian embassy in Berlin who was an officer at the Russian GRU military intelligence agency.
They did not specify how his activities came to light.
The charges against the suspect, who is not in custody, were filed in a court in Berlin on February 12. The court will have to decide whether the trial will continue.
Relations between Germany and Russia have been plagued by a growing list of issues over the past few years.
In October, the European Union imposed sanctions on two Russian officials and part of the GRU agency for a cyber-attack on the German parliament in 2015.
In addition, a Russian man accused of killing a Georgian man in broad daylight in downtown Berlin in Moscow is on trial at Moscow’s command in 2019.
Last year’s poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was flown to Germany for treatment and then arrested immediately after returning to Russia, has added another strain.