European Stars and Stripes
December 15, 2000
Pg. 9
Marshall Center Staffer Charged With Spying
By Chuck Vinch, Washington bureau chief
WASHINGTON — A faculty member at the George C. Marshall Center in Garmisch, Germany, was arrested on charges of espionage in September while
traveling in Moscow and at last report was in jail in Belarus, Stars and Stripes has learned.
Sources at the Marshall Center who spoke on condition of anonymity identified the staffer as Christoph Lez, a German citizen hired by the former U.S. Army
Russian Institute, the forerunner of the Marshall Center, in 1984. Lez taught five Eurasian studies electives in the school’s foreign area officer program.
Marshall Center officials declined to comment on Lez’s status. Mari K. Eder, a Center spokeswoman, would say only that he is on indefinite leave without pay.
"Dr. Lez is a German citizen," Eder said. "At the request of the German government, questions concerning his situation should be directed to the German Foreign
Office in Berlin."
Eder did confirm, however, that Lez had been traveling in Moscow in September on official Marshall Center orders, doing research for a monograph he was
preparing on peacekeeping.
The Belarus news agency, BELAPAN, had a brief report Sept. 26 about a "suspected foreign spy" arrested Sept. 16 in Moscow at the request of Belarusian
officials.
The suspect, who at the time was in confinement in the capital of Minsk, had been charged with espionage, a crime punishable by seven to 15 years in prison under
Belarusian law, according to the report.
Belarusian officials had evidence that the unnamed suspect "recruited Belarusian citizens to gather secret information" and "allegedly ran a network of agents and
supplied them with equipment and hard currency," the report said.
Belarusian officials refused to provide further details, including the identity of the individual cited in the September news report. "I have no information to give you,"
said Alexander Khmurets, a Belarusian consular spokesman in Washington.
The German government also refused to discuss the situation. "We decline to comment," said Alexnader Lambsdorff, a spokesman at the German embassy in
Washington. "My instructions from Berlin are very clear — this is a matter that we really can’t talk about."
It is not known whether Lez has gone to trial and his current status is also unknown. Messages left on Lez’s home answering machine were not returned.
According to Marshall Center sources, three faculty members — two foreign national civilians and one U.S. military officer — were leading a group of students on a
field trip to Moscow at the time Lez was arrested, although they were not traveling with him.
The group had been in Moscow for four or five days when Lez was arrested and was due to stay three more days. But Marshall Center officials cut short the travel
of the two civilian faculty members and brought them back to Garmisch, while the U.S. military officer and the group of students immediately headed to Ukraine for
the next leg of their trip, sources said.
Several Marshall Center staffers said it was known among the school’s staff that Lez, a former Polish military officer who defected to the West during the Cold War,
had developed numerous business dealings in Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics in recent years. Lez and his family own several souvenir shops in
Garmisch.
"He had business connections in Belarus, Ukraine," said one Marshall Center staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The whole Marshall Center knows he
does business in Eastern Europe."
Michael Chechinski, a former Marshall Center instructor now living in Israel, said he is certain that Lez and a number of foreign nationals on the school’s staff have
academic degrees with shaky pedigrees.
"If they had an investigation and asked people how they got their degrees, they would get some very interesting answers," said Chechinski, who added that he had
raised the issue with Marshall Center officials on several occasions.
Eder said the Marshall Center leadership was unaware of any of Lez’s outside business activities or his alleged degree-for-cash offers to other faculty members.
