Confusion Reigns in Bonn’s Spy Scandal as High Official Is Detained, Then Freed

The West German government disclosed Thursday that a high-ranking official in its scandal-riddled counterintelligence agency was detained on suspicion of espionage and then later released.

A spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office announced the detention of Reinhard Liebetanz, 48, in charge of the department that deals with neo-Nazi and other right-wing terrorism, for questioning as a suspected agent for East Germany. But a few hours later, a government spokesman announced his release.

There is “no urgent” suspicion against Liebetanz, the spokesman said, but he added that an investigation is continuing.

The contradictory development seemed to mirror the confusion that has existed in West Germany’s intelligence circles for many days.

Spreading Spy Scandal

Liebetanz works for the Cologne-based Office for the Protection of the Constitution, from which a senior official, Hans Joachim Tiedge, defected to East Germany last week in a spreading spy scandal now seen here as the worst in West Germany’s history. Tiedge, 48, headed the East German department within the counterintelligence agency.

In a parallel development, authorities here said that a senior East German diplomat based in Argentina has defected to the West.

He was identified as Martin Winkler, 44, the No. 2 man in the East German Embassy in Buenos Aires. He was said to have defected Sunday.

West German authorities would give no further details on Winkler, but informed Bonn sources said that his defection may have been tied to Tiedge’s flight east--that Winkler may have been an undercover agent for West Germany who was in danger of being exposed by the defecting Tiedge.

Latin Affairs Specialist

The sources said that Winkler is now undergoing questioning by intelligence officials in West Germany. Winkler reportedly had worked for the East German Foreign Ministry for 20 years, specializing in Latin American affairs, and had served in the East German Embassy in Havana.

At the same time, Chancellor Helmut Kohl confirmed that he has forced the resignation of Heribert Hellenbroich, 48, Bonn’s foreign intelligence chief.

Until Aug. 1, Hellenbroich headed the counterintelligence agency, and he had kept Tiedge in his sensitive post despite complaints about his personal life, including a serious drinking problem and the accumulation of debts, that made him a poor security risk.

Kohl, however, took no immediate action against Interior Minister Friedrich Zimmermann, whose ministry is in overall charge of counterintelligence operations. Zimmermann’s resignation has been called for by Hans-Jochen Vogel, leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party.

Kohl announced, as expected, the appointment of Hans-Georg Wieck to be the new chief of foreign intelligence, replacing Hellenbroich. Wieck, 57, a former West German envoy to Moscow, is at present Bonn’s ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels.

Ludwig-Holger Pfahls, 43, who succeeded Hellenbroich as head of counterintelligence, was unaffected because he has been less than a month in the post and was unconnected with the Tiedge affair.

The counterintelligence agency has seven departments concerned variously with such subjects as urban guerrilla warfare, leftist and rightist extremism, leaks of official secrets and spying by Communist nations. Tiedge headed the department concerned with East German espionage in the West, while Liebetanz’s department keeps track of rightist extremism.

In another Thursday development, the federal prosecutor’s office announced that it is investigating a possible connection between a German couple arrested this week in Switzerland and Margarete Hoeke, 50, the only figure in the burgeoning scandal who remains in jail here after being arrested as a suspected spy for East Germany.

Hoeke was a secretary for many years in the office of the West German president, a largely ceremonial post held at present by Richard von Weizsaecker. She is suspected of having passed sensitive information to East Berlin for the last decade.

Authorities said that Hoeke had ties to a man named Franz Becker, whom they identified as an East German agent who lived first in West Germany and later in Lucerne, Switzerland, where he operated as an agents’ controller, with frequent trips to West Germany.

Investigators are checking for any connection between Becker and Johann Huebner and his wife, Ingeborg, who were arrested this week in Switzerland. West German authorities said that Becker and Huebner may be the same person.