The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court has sentenced reserve officer Ralph G. to one year and nine months probation. He has provided information to Russian military intelligence for years.
The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court convicted a Bundeswehr reserve officer of espionage for the Russian secret service GRU.
For years, a former reserve officer in the Bundeswehr has provided the Russian secret service GRU with information about the Bundeswehr’s reservist system, the effects of EU sanctions against Russia and cyber security. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court sentenced the 66-year-old reservist to one year and nine months on probation.
The former reservist from Erkrath near Düsseldorf was driven by an “extremely pro-Russian attitude and the urge to make himself popular and important among Russian military personnel,” said the presiding judge. In doing so, he accepted damaging the interests of the Federal Republic and the USA.
The man’s defense attorney had asked for an acquittal. None of the information passed on was secret, everything was publicly available. The former reserve officer had fully admitted that the documents had been sent to a Russian military attaché. “I wanted to build a bridge, I never had any bad intentions,” he said in his closing remarks.