Spy’s harm ‘irreparable’

Press, 24 October 1984, Page 10

Spy’s harm ‘irreparable’

NZPA-Reuter Bonn A West German aircraft engineer arrested last month on charges of spying for the Soviet Union had done irreparable, damage, a senior Government official said yesterday. Manfred Rotsch, aged 60," was a planning manager with Messerschmitt-Boel-kow-Blohm, West Germany’s top aerospace group. The group was a key contributor to the advanced multirole Tornado aircraft, and is heavily engaged in the planning of a new fivenation N.A.T.O. fighter air-

craft, known as “Jaeger 90.” In the first public comment on the affair by the Bonn Government, the Parliamentary Secretary of State in the Interior Ministry, Mr Carl-Dieter Spranger, directly referred to “the Rotsch spy case”, praising those responsible for its exposure. “The damage done to our country through this treason is irreparable and its dimensions have still not been fully assessed,” he told the Office for the Protection of the Federal Constitution. Mr Spranger said that the

case had showed, “with frightening significance,” how Communist countries were engaged in a systematic technology procurement programme, particularly in support of military armament. The Government had previously declined to comment on news media reports that the alleged spy had rendered the new allied fighter project useless. Rotsch has been charged with passing documents and information concerning his professional activities to Soviet intelligence. No trial date has yet been set.