Arne Schönbohm, the former head of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), has not violated his official duties, according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The house of Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) will not open disciplinary proceedings. First, the portal "Business Insider" had reported about it.
Helene Bubrowski
Political correspondent in Berlin.
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Faeser had relieved Schönbohm of official duties last October. This happened shortly after the satirist Jan Böhmermann had addressed his contacts with the "Cyber Security Council Germany" and accused him of being close to Russian intelligence services. There was a lot of public excitement, but it wasn't a revelation, the stories were all known.
Faeser had justified the decision at the time by saying that "the necessary trust of the public in the neutrality and impartiality" of Schönbohm as head of the BSI was "permanently damaged".
However, it is questionable how good it had been before the broadcast about the trust: There was always trouble between the ministry and Schönbohm. Because he was not a political official, he could not be put into temporary retirement, but became president of the Federal Academy of Public Administration. Union politicians now accuse Faeser of having damaged Schönbohm's reputation for no reason and are calling for rehabilitation.