The Federal Public Prosecutor has arrested an employee of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) on suspicion of treason. He is said to have transmitted information to a Russian news service this year, as the authority announced in Karlsruhe on Thursday.

The content is a state secret. The German was arrested the day before in Berlin. In addition, the apartment and the workplace of the accused and another person were searched.

The BND announced in Berlin that the accused had been brought before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice on Thursday. The suspect is now in custody. In addition, two BND properties were searched.

After the BND became aware of a possible suspected case within its own ranks as part of its intelligence work, the service immediately initiated extensive internal investigations, said BND President Bruno Kahl. When they confirmed the suspicion, the Federal Public Prosecutor was called on immediately. "We work closely and trustingly with the investigative authorities to thoroughly clarify the case," said Kahl.

Out of consideration for the ongoing investigations, the BND will not publicly comment on further details of the case until further notice, emphasized Kahl. "Restraint and discretion are very important in this particular case." With Russia, on the other hand, we are dealing with an actor "whose unscrupulousness and willingness to use violence we have to reckon with," added the BND president.

The reason for these statements could be the concern about possible dangers for contacts and informers of the German secret service in Russia, who could have been betrayed by the suspected spy in the ranks of the BND.

Kahl emphasized that every detail of the process that was made public "means an advantage for this opponent with the intention of harming Germany". Therefore, in this case, the success of the investigation depends on "that as little as possible becomes public until the Attorney General has completed his investigation."

The last time a so-called mole – a double agent at the BND – was exposed was in 2014. Two years later, the man was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Munich Higher Regional Court for years of espionage, primarily for the US secret service CIA. The then 32-year-old was found guilty of treason and breach of official secrets.

Between 2008 and 2014, the trained office clerk passed on more than 200 BND documents, some of which were top secret or explosive, to the CIA and collected at least 80,000 euros for them. He made a confession in court. The motives he gave were boredom, frustration and not being challenged at his job. Among the documents passed on was a database with code and real names of German agents abroad. The man is said to have endangered the life of a BND source abroad. In 2014 he had also offered himself to the Russian secret service by email.