THREE Chinese spies have reportedly been arrested in Germany for passing on military secrets to Beijing and stealing revolutionary laser technology.The trio of suspected spies were detained after being accused of obtaining data on “innovative technologies that could be used militarily”, say prosecutors in the latest German spy saga.
Investigators arrested a 59-year-old man and a couple from Düsseldorf this morning on strong suspicions of “secret service agent activity”.
They have also violated the Foreign Trade Act, says German Federal Prosecutor General Jens Rommel.
The arrests took place in Hesse and North-Rhine-Westphalia.
The main suspect has been named as Thomas R and is said to have been in contact with an employee of the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) during his time in Germany.
He used his connections in the country to obtain the top-secret data, claim officials.
Officers believe he enlisted the help of Herwig, 72, and Ina F, 58, and used their day-to-day lives as a front for the covert operations.
The couple run a company in Düsseldorf and investigators are convinced it could have served “as a medium for establishing contact and collaboration” with German scientists and researchers.
The three arrested are also accused of stealing a specially made laser from German labs under MSS orders, say the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
It is believed they managed to sneak the device out of Europe and into the hands of Chinese secret agents.
Some of the other information passed on is around modern machine parts for ship engines.
The engines are commonly used for combat ships in war zones.
Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called the arrests a “great success for our counterintelligence”.
She continued: “The area affected in the current case – innovative technologies from Germany that can be used for military purposes – is particularly sensitive.”
They will now be bought in front of an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice.
It comes as two more alleged spies suspected of planning to sabotage military aid intended for Ukraine were arrested.
The men, identified only as Dieter S and Alexander J, are said by officials to be dual German–Russian nationals.
They were reportedly discussing possible acts of sabotage in Germany with a person linked to Russian intelligence since October.
Dieter S was also accused of declaring himself willing to carry out bombing and arson attacks on military infrastructure.
GERMANY’S SPY PROBLEM
The grave concerns over intelligence leaks come after Germany fumbled important information into the hands of Russian spies.
In Germany’s biggest spy scandal in decades, the head of the Luftwaffe, Ingo Gerhartz, told officers Britain is delivering Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine.
But he revealed British troops were “on the ground” — a highly confidential move that Russia said shows Nato is “preparing for war”.
The Kremlin intercepted the 38-minute call, conducted on an off-the-shelf video chat platform, which was then broadcast across Russian state television.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the leak was “very serious” and that a probe was now under way over it.
Downing Street insisted the incident was “a matter for Germany”, which remained “a very close Nato ally”.
But former chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, insisted the leak was “worrying on a number of levels”.
Professor Anthony Glees, a security expert from the University of Buckingham, also told The Sun that “heads should roll” for Germany’s “appalling breach of Nato security”.
