German charged with passing parliament floor plans to Russia

BERLIN (AP) — Prosecutors say a German man has been charged with espionage for allegedly passing information on properties used by the German parliament to Russian military intelligence. They said Thursday the suspect worked for a company that was repeatedly contracted to check electrical appliances by the Bundestag, or lower house of parliament. As a result, he had access to PDF files with floor plans of the sites involved. Prosecutors said, at some point before early September 2017, the suspect decided to give information on the properties to Russian intelligence. They said he sent the PDF files to an employee of the Russian Embassy who was an officer with Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency.