Gay porn star-turned-spy goes on trial for treason after ‘leaking state secrets to terrorists’
A former German gay-for-pay porn star has been charged with treason after leaking classified information in extremist online chat rooms.
In a case that shows that truth is truly stranger than fiction, a 52-year-old former security agent is on trial for treason after allegedly discussing sensitive information involving terror investigations on a known terrorist chat room.
Investigators discovered the man’s adult film career after his arrest, finding multiple videos of his performance under the alias of Roque M.
The 52-year-old began work for the German domestic security agency, the BfV, in April 2016.
A similar story emerged in 2010 where a German court jailed a former spy for over two years for sharing state secrets with his boyfriend.
The banker turned porn star turned security agent was discovered on terrorist chat rooms and offering information about the security agency that he obtained during his seven-month employment at the BfV.
On a terrorist chat room, the former porn star allegedly offered access to the security agency.
Additionally, the 52-year-old was known to contact those who were under investigation and warn them of the activities of intelligence agents.
In November, the highly accurate details of this information alerted German intelligence agents.
The agents then lured Roque M into an individual chat where they were able to identify him as an employee.
The former spy was arrested the next day on suspicion of preparing to commit a violent act and for violating state secrecy laws.
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Member of the Parliamentary body that oversees the German Intelligence services Hans-Christian Ströbele said:“It’s not only a rather bizarre, but also a quite scary story.
“An agency, whose central role it is to engage in counterespionage, hired an Islamist who potentially had access to classified information.”
Roque M denied any physical contact with any terrorists, saying that his chat room activities only provided an: “escape from reality” and that he was bored with his job in the security agency.
He said to the DPA news agency: “I never met with any Islamists. I would never do that. The whole thing was like a game.”
A senior law enforcement official said to the Washington Post:”With all the information coming out about this individual, the question has to be raised: how he was able to end up in the intelligence service?”
BfV President, Hans-Georg Maaßen said that there is a need to examine their hiring procedures, saying: “We will fundamentally review the case in order to see what we can learn from it.”
The trial is expected to be five days long.
