Germany charges man with spying for Indian intelligence
German prosecutors have charged an Indian man with spying on
the Sikh community and Kashmir activists in Germany for India's intelligence
service for more than two years.
The federal prosecutor's office said on Wednesday that
espionage charges against the suspect, identified only as Balvir S in line with
German privacy rules, were filed at a state court in Frankfurt.
He is accused of agreeing to pass information on Sikhs and
the "Kashmir movement" and their relatives to an employee of India's
Research and Analysis Wing, the foreign intelligence agency of India, on or
before January 2015.
According to prosecutors, the suspect was in regular
telephone and personal contact with the Germany-based intelligence officer and
passed on information "in numerous cases" until December 2017.
They did not specify whether he is in custody.
"He allegedly provided information about figures in the
Sikh opposition scene and the Kashmiri movement and their relatives in Germany,
and passed this on to his handlers who were working at the Indian consulate
general in Frankfurt," the higher regional court in the city said in a
statement earlier this week.
The trial will open on August 25.
The same Frankfurt court convicted an Indian couple for
spying on the same communities last December. The husband was handed a suspended
prison sentence of 18 months for acting as a foreign intelligence agent and his
wife was fined 180 days' wages for aiding him.
India and Pakistan have disputed Kashmir since they became
independent and split in 1947, with the nuclear rivals fighting two out of
three wars over the region.
Tens of thousands of people have died in battles waged since
1989.
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