German to stand trial for spying

A German engineer is to stand trial in Hamburg on charges of passing military secrets to the East German intelligence service, the Stasi, during the Cold War.

The German federal court said that the man, identified as Peter A., had supplied the Stasi with classified information about torpedo technology until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, while working for a submarine weapons manifacturer in what was then West Germany.

The information was then passed on to the Soviet Security service, the KGB.

Prosecutors say it enabled the Soviet intelligence to asses Western potential and to benefit from its research.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service