Overview

• The draft expands terrorism offences to criminalise re-entry with intent, preparation of attacks using vehicles or knives, and new forms of financing under Paragraph 89c
• Espionage provisions are broadened to authorise covert measures such as residential eavesdropping and online searches against foreign agents
• Federal states and legal associations have until mid-August to comment on the proposal ahead of a planned cabinet review in early September
• Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt conducted the first deportation flight to Afghanistan in nearly a year, returning 81 convicted men with serious criminal records
• Coalition leaders say the reforms respond to a rise in knife and vehicle attacks domestically and heightened espionage linked to the Russia-Ukraine conflict