According to FOCUS research, the new Vice President of Cologne’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Felor Badenberg, apparently violated the strict security precautions of her own authority by making a private trip to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Felor Badenberg, who was born in Tehran and was only promoted to the top of domestic secrets by Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) on June 22, flew to the Iranian capital months ago to settle inheritance matters after the death of her father. In doing so, she obviously violated the strict security measures of her own authority.
Accordingly, all BfV employees are strictly prohibited from traveling to and staying in countries such as Iran, Syria or Russia, as they are threatened with arrest there for espionage.
Security circles assume that the 46-year-old Badenberg was meticulously observed by the Iranian secret service after she landed in Iran. A senior government official told FOCUS: “Iranian counterintelligence will have registered very precisely who they met where. This group of people is now considered to be familiar with the top official who is hunting Iranian agents in Germany. That means specifically that Badenberg’s contacts in Tehran are large could be dangerous.”
Badenberg, who holds a doctorate in law, came to Cologne when she was 12 years old. Since part of her family continued to live in Tehran and the Islamic Republic did not revoke her citizenship, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution should not have hired her, according to a former state secretary. The risk of possible blackmail was too high.
According to FOCUS research, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, Interior Secretary Hans-Georg Engelcke and BfV President Thomas Haldenwang were inaugurated in Badenberg’s fundamentally forbidden trip to Iran.
When asked by FOCUS, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution did not want to say who approved Badenberg’s flight to Tehran and whether the process would result in a criminal transfer. The authority also did not answer the question of whether the deputy secret service chief used cover papers for camouflage.
According to a report, the Berlin-Mitte housing association has increased the ancillary cost prepayments for tenants whose apartments are heated with gas or oil by 100 percent. This is intended to counteract immense additional payments in view of the high energy prices.
According to media reports, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was fatally injured in an assassination attempt. A man shot Abe from behind during a campaign speech in the old imperial city of Nara in broad daylight, Japanese media reported on Friday, citing Abe’s ruling LDP party.
Numerous members of the German Bundestag are also listed in the lobby register as functionaries of lobby associations. This is reported by the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” and the transparency initiative parliamentwatch.de.
