Left-Extremist Endeavours

Co-operation among the
agencies involved in
fighting proliferation
Conviction for treason on a
proliferation charge
plementation of which exceeds a country’s capabilities, assistance
can be provided also by other countries, such as a number
of republics of the former USSR, but also by the PR of China.
Proliferation can be fought effectively only by means of close cooperation
among all agencies involved in anti-proliferation activities.
These include the [Federal and Land] Offices for the Protection
of the Constitution, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND),
the Customs Criminological Office (ZKA), the Federal Exports Office
(BAFA) and the Federal Office of Criminal Police (BKA). The
Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution endeavours
to identify clandestine procurement methods also through exchanges
of information with the intelligence services of foreign
countries. Due to the narrow limitation of their statutory antiproliferation
responsibilities, involvement of the agencies for the
Protection of the Constitution is possible to a limited extent only.
The problems related to proliferation in mid-1999 once more was
increasingly in the centre of public attention. On June 29, the
Bavarian Higher Regional Court of Appeal (BayObLG) sentenced
a German entrepreneur to five years’ imprisonment and to a fine
of 60,000 DM on the charge of treason (against the external security
of the State). The convicted person had in 1989 sold, to
Iraq, design drawings for the construction of a gas ultracentrifugation
plant required for uranium enrichment. This enabled Iraq
to produce weapons-grade uranium.
VII. Arrests and Convictions
In 1999, the Federal Public Prosecutor General initiated 63 preliminary
investigations for suspected intelligence agent activities.
Criminal prosecution authorities detained five persons, and arrest
warrants were issued against all of them. Of these persons, one
had worked for a Syrian intelligence service, one is said to have
worked for an Iranian service, and two of them are charged with
having acted on behalf of a Russian service. The fifth detainee
had, until late 1989, been a staffer of the "Ministry of State Security"
(MfS, or "Stasi") of the former GDR. He is accused of
having had contacts with a Russian intelligence service since the
early 1990s.
During the same period, courts in the Federal Republic of Germany
sentenced ten suspects for criminal offences constituting
"treason [against the external security of the State] and endangerment
of external security" (Penal Code, ss. 93 - 101a), of whom
one was sentenced on a charge of treason.
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