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Suspected Islamist arrested for spying on German intelligence agency

Xinhua, November 30, 2016 Adjust font size:

A 51-year-old Islamist with German citizenship who worked for Germany's Federal Intelligence Agency has been arrested for spying on the intelligence agency, German local media Spiegel Online reported on Tuesday.

The Federal Intelligence Agency has "succeeded in exposing a suspect Islamist among their employees", as the agency confirmed on Tuesday evening to Spiegel Online.

The man has made a partial confession now, said the report. According to him, his goal was to infiltrate the Federal Intelligence Agency and gather informations for a bomb attack on the main building in the western German city of Cologne.

He had tried to pass on "sensitive information about the Federal Intelligence Agency, which could lead to a threat to the office," the agency was quoted as saying.

The man, a bank clerk and a family father, was hired by the federal constitution as a lateral entry employee in April 2016 in order to observe the Islamic scene in Germany.

He was "inconspicuous" during the application process, training as well as in his working fields, according to the authority. Endit