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CRIME

Faulty AC could cost spy headquarters €9.7 mln

Authorities have discovered serious defects in the air conditioning system of the new headquarters being built to house Germany’s BND foreign intelligence service, potentially costing nearly €10 million to fix.

Faulty AC could cost spy headquarters €9.7 mln
Photo: DPA

There have been multiple problems since ground was broken in 2008 on the new Berlin headquarters of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), which was supposed to cost €720 million. The organization’s roughly 4,000 workers were slated to move from Bavaria to Berlin next year, but its opening has been delayed until 2014.

Among the project’s biggest scandals happened this summer when it was revealed that building plans had mysteriously disappeared. It is also likely to run over cost by more than €80 million.

In the end, total costs for the new building, including relocating employees and technology will near €2 billion.

The troubles with the air conditioning unit are particularly galling because the contractor apparently failed to follow basic regulations, according to the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper. The air conditioner’s ventilation systems are inadequate and it was inexplicably never tested before its installation, the newspaper reported.

Andreas Kübler, spokesman for the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR), said the defects had been “promptly detected,” but the government couldn’t get the responsible firm to adequately fix the problems.

The company’s contract was therefore terminated by the government, Kübler told the Morgenpost. It seems likely that taxpayers will have to pick up the €9.7 million tab for the reinstallation.

The BND declined to comment on the situation.

The Local/mdm

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POLITICS

Germany raids properties in bribery probe aimed at AfD politician

German officials said on Thursday they had raided properties as part of a bribery probe into an MP, who media say is a far-right AfD lawmaker accused of spreading Russian propaganda.

Germany raids properties in bribery probe aimed at AfD politician

The investigation targets Petr Bystron, the number-two candidate for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in next month’s European Parliament elections, Der Spiegel news outlet reported.

Police, and prosecutors in Munich, confirmed on Thursday they were conducting “a preliminary investigation against a member of the German Bundestag on the initial suspicion of bribery of elected officials and money laundering”, without giving a name.

Properties in Berlin, the southern state of Bavaria and the Spanish island of Mallorca were searched and evidence seized, they said in a statement.

About 70 police officers and 11 prosecutors were involved in the searches.

Last month, Bystron denied media reports that he was paid to spread pro-Russian views on a Moscow-financed news website, just one of several scandals that the extreme-right anti-immigration AfD is battling.

READ ALSO: How spying scandal has rocked troubled German far-right party

Bystron’s offices in the German parliament, the Bundestag, were searched after lawmakers voted to waive the immunity usually granted to MPs, his party said.

The allegations against Bystron surfaced in March when the Czech government revealed it had bust a Moscow-financed network that was using the Prague-based Voice of Europe news site to spread Russian propaganda across Europe.

Did AfD politicians receive Russian money?

Czech daily Denik N said some European politicians cooperating with the news site were paid from Russian funds, in some cases to fund their European Parliament election campaigns.

It singled out the AfD as being involved.

Denik N and Der Spiegel named Bystron and Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s top candidate for the European elections, as suspects in the case.

After the allegations emerged, Bystron said that he had “not accepted any money to advocate pro-Russian positions”.

Krah has denied receiving money for being interviewed by the site.

On Wednesday, the European Union agreed to impose a broadcast ban on the Voice of Europe, diplomats said.

The AfD’s popularity surged last year, when it capitalised on discontent in Germany at rising immigration and a weak economy, but it has dropped back in the face of recent scandals.

As well as the Russian propaganda allegations, the party has faced a Chinese spying controversy and accusations that it discussed the idea of mass deportations with extremists, prompting a wave of protests across Germany.

READ ALSO: Germany, Czech Republic accuse Russia of cyberattacks

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