Last week, FOCUS published a report about the Vice President of the Cologne Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Felor Badenberg, which is disputed in essential points.
Although the editors based their research on several independent sources, they no longer maintain their account. The FOCUS report said that Badenberg had traveled to Iran “a few weeks ago” to settle inheritance matters there.
In doing so, she may have violated the strict security precautions of the domestic secret service BfV, which prohibits travel to politically critical countries such as Iran. This representation is obviously wrong. The Federal Office has since stated that Ms. Badenberg had actually traveled to Iran more than five years ago for private reasons.
According to a lawyer from the agency, she reported the trip to FOCUS in advance. After careful examination, the BfV saw no reason to prohibit this trip for safety reasons. Rather, the then President of the BfV personally agreed in writing to his employee’s trip.
According to the lawyer, their private stay in Iran was not intended to regulate inheritance matters. The BfV employee also had no contact with state authorities. “Since this trip at the beginning of 2017, there have been no further trips by Dr. Badenberg to Iran.”
Felor Badenberg, who came to Germany from Iran as a teenager, has been working at the BfV since 2006. On June 15 of this year, the Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, appointed the doctor of law as Vice President of the domestic secret service.