Arrest on Suspicion of Engaging in Intelligence Activities

Year of issue 2024
Date 07.11.2024

Today (7 November 2024), the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office had agents of the investigating Federal Criminal Police Office arrest

US-American national Martin D.

in Frankfurt am Main in execution of an arrest warrant issued by the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice on 30 October 2024. The suspect’s apartment was searched.

Martin D. is strongly suspected of declaring his willingness to a foreign intelligence service to engage in intelligence activities (section 99 para. 1 no. 2, para. 2 of the German Criminal Code in conjunction with section 1 para. 1 no. 4 of the Act on the Protection of NATO Troops).

Essentially, the arrest warrant sets out the following allegations:

Martin D. was working for the U.S. Armed Forces in Germany until recently. In 2024, he contacted Chinese official authorities and offered them to share sensitive U.S. American military information to forward it to a Chinese intelligence service. He had gained access to said information while working for the U.S. Armed Forces.

The investigation was conducted in close collaboration with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

The suspect will be brought before the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice today (7 November 2024) who will read out the arrest warrant to him and decide on the enforcement of pre-trial detention.