A 54-year-old German army officer who confessed to spying for Russia has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison by a court in Düsseldorf.
The man, a captain, had admitted to betraying sensitive military information to the Russian secret services. He also joined the far-right political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) around the same time he offered himself to Russian intelligence.
Prosecutors accused him of serving as an agent for a hostile, ruthlessly aggressive foreign power.
German police officers arrested the man in Koblenz on August 9 and he has been in custody ever since. The incident was one of several Russian spy scandals that have rocked Germany in recent months and raised security concerns in the country.
He risked a shorter prison sentence because the information he offered to the Russians was classified as state secrets. If he had also betrayed more sensitive state secrets, he could have received harsher sentences of up to life in prison.
The captain had claimed he was driven by fear of nuclear escalation during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His lawyer argued that during a difficult period of professional work, he began consuming fake news, propaganda and conspiracies on the social media platforms Telegram and TikTok.
“It’s the biggest joke I’ve ever made in my life,” the suspect said in a closing statement to the court. He said depression caused by chronic overwork had affected his rational thinking.
His lawyer said the decision came during a four-day period in which he destroyed everything he had built up over many years as a professional soldier: “Four days of betrayal in which he crossed red lines. Four days of complete failure.”
At times he was far removed from reality, his lawyer said. He also noted that the man has since left the AfD party.
