A former German military officer accused of throwing CDs containing official secrets over a wall into the Russian consulate in Bonn has been convicted of spying.
Thomas H admitted to contacting the Russians with secrets a number of times because he wanted to “prevent a nuclear escalation of the Ukraine war”, claiming he feared for his family’s safety in a nuclear conflict.
He was convicted on Monday at the Dusseldorf higher regional court of giving up military secrets and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
The 54-year-old former army captain from Koblenz worked at the agency responsible for equipping the Bundeswehr – the German army – with high-tech weaponry.
State prosecutors accused him of serving a state which had committed proven violations of international law. The said he had put military secrets on CD-Roms and thrown them over the wall into the Russian consulate in brown envelopes.
Thomas H denied throwing CDs but acknowledged approaching the Russians. He attempted to make contact multiple times to offer his services to both the consulate and the Russian embassy in Berlin in 2022.
At around the same time he joined the far-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which advocates for trade with Russia.
He was arrested in August 2023, and has been held in custody since then.
Thomas H’s defence lawyer blamed his very poor psychological condition and “chronic overwork”. They said his hard-earned career was in ruins after “four days of treason, when he crossed red lines”, dubbing his actions “four days of total failure”.
He said his client had been drawn into an obsessive spiral of “fake news … on TikTok and Telegram”, which gave him the push to contact the Russian consulate in Bonn in May 2023.
Thomas H himself said in a summary statement: “It’s the biggest mess I’ve ever made in my life.”
Before approaching the AfD, he had tried to contact the German Left Party, which also opposes NATO and the western military alliance.
The troubled party, which recently split with its more pro-Russian wing, refused Thomas H’s advances due to doubts about his integrity, German press reported.
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