Espionage in Germany; call for employment restrictions on security personnel

Espionage in Germany; call for employment restrictions on security personnel

Omid Nouripour, a politician from the Green Party, demanded practical consequences from the case of August Hanning, the former head of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND), who was arrested on suspicion of espionage.

This Green Party politician told the newspaper "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger": "The Hanning case shows how sensitive the employment of former officials with the highest level of access to classified information in private sector advisory roles is."

The German parliament (Bundestag) member emphasized that the identification of Hanning closed a serious security breach. He stated, "It must be clarified immediately what damage this information leak actually caused."

At the same time, Nouripour praised the performance of the security institutions, adding: "The identification of Hanning is commendable by our security institutions. In this way, a serious information breach was detected and blocked." According to media reports, the former German intelligence chief allegedly prepared an analysis for the intelligence service of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The German weekly Der Spiegel reported the night before last that investigators are examining the suspicion that Hanning was in contact with an intelligence officer of the Republic of Azerbaijan.