CARNAL NATION

You might have thought that complex tales of love, lust, betrayal, and espionnage died out when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down 20 years ago, thereby ending the Cold War and the glamorized and shadowy world of undercover spies. However, a court case currently underway in Munich is resurrecting all those old plot devices but in real life and with some twenty-first-century twists. Anton K, an agent with the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND or the Federal Intelligence Service) formerly posted undercover in Kosovo, is standing trial, accused of fraud and betraying state secrets to his secret gay lover, Murat A. Murat is also accused of fraud as well as passing confidential information. The affair and the alleged transgressions occurred over a two-year period until Anton's wife blew the whistle—once she noticed that she'd been replaced by Murat as the beneficiary of Anton's life insurance policy. And then there's the embattled and embarrassed BND, which stands to lose no matter which way the trial goes.

Anton K was sent to Kosovo to study the links between organized crime and the unstable political situation in the new and troubled country. Once installed in the Kosovar capital of Pristina, Anton hired then-27-year-old Murat as his interpreter. Soon, the two became lovers but failed to notify, as directed by policy, the BND of the sexual aspect of their relationship. Things appeared to go well on the mission until Anton's wife stormed the administrative offices of the BND to complain about his new (male) lover. The resulting investigation and trial have shut down an entire spy network. As if such revelations weren't embarrassing enough for the intelligence agency, the counter charges of homophobia made by attorneys representing both defendants risk an even greater public relations nightmare if it can be found that senior administrators engaged in the "homophobic witch hunt" alleged by the prosecution.

Indeed, the trial, held in a closed courtroom to protect secrecy, will be a difficult one for the prosecution to prove. As Anton K's official interpreter, Murat A was an employee of the German foreign and would have had access to confidential information and would have attended secret meetings. Attorneys for Murat further claim that there is no evidence that he passed any secret information on to other parties. As for Anton K, his attorneys claim that he was merely doing his job and that his only error was failing to inform the agency of the sexual relationship he was having with his official interpreter. "The core of the affair is so ridiculous," says Anton's attorney Sascha Jung, "that it's a complete mystery to us as to why the BND would knowingly risk the damage potentially resulting from its actions."

If convicted, both men face up to ten years in prison. Either way, the BND will need to explain why it wasn't keeping better tabs on its assets. And while Anton's wife might want to kill him, she probably now realizes that she'd still get left with nothing.