German authorities have arrested a Ukrainian man suspected of spying on a defense company in Bavaria to prepare possible acts of sabotage.
Investigators suspect he took photographs of the premises of a Bavarian defense company in June and passed them to handlers working for a foreign intelligence service.
What do we know about the case so far?
The 33-year-old was detained in the eastern state of Thuringia on Sunday and is now in pretrial detention, Munich prosecutors and Bavaria’s State Criminal Police Office said on Thursday.
A Munich court issued an arrest warrant on Monday and the suspect is now being held in pre-trial detention in Bavaria.
Authorities described the man as a so-called “low-level agent,” a term used for people recruited by foreign intelligence services to carry out relatively simple tasks.
Prosecutors said he was suspected of acting as an agent for sabotage purposes.
The arrest followed cooperation between security and intelligence agencies coordinated through Germany’s recently established Joint Center for Countering Hybrid Threats, known as GAZ-Hybrid.
Authorities did not identify the foreign intelligence service allegedly involved and said no further details could be released while the investigation continues.
Edited by: Roshni Majumdar
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