Germany mulls extradition of Briton who ‘spied for Russia’

A former employee of the British embassy in Berlin suspected of spying for Russia faces being extradited to the United Kingdom, officials told AFP on Friday.

The prosecutors’ office in Brandenburg was examining an extradition request from the UK government, as first reported by the German weekly Spiegel.

Referred to as David S. by prosecutors, but identified as David Smith by local media, he is said to have “passed on documents he acquired as part of his professional activities to a representative of Russian intelligence”, according to the federal prosecutors’ office.

Employed at the British embassy in Berlin, “the accused received a cash payment in an unspecified amount in return,” the prosecutor’s office said at the time of Smith’s arrest.

The suspect is said to have passed on information relating to both Britain and Germany to Russian intelligence, according to Spiegel, who reported that the man opposed his extradition.

His arrest in August was the result of a joint operation by British and German authorities.

He is the latest in a string of suspected Russian spies to have been uncovered in Germany.

In June, German police arrested a Russian scientist at a German university accused of working for the Russian secret service.

In February, German prosecutors filed espionage charges against a German man suspected of having passed the floor plans of parliament to Russian secret services in 2017.

The latest espionage case also comes at a time of highly strained relations between Germany and Russia on multiple fronts, including the ongoing detention of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who received treatment in Berlin after a near-fatal poisoning.