Former German intelligence chief Hanning was arrested on suspicion of espionage and high treason
August Hanning, the former head of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND), was arrested on suspicion of espionage.
DW reports this, according to Censor.NET.
Details
He headed the BND from December 1998 to November 2005, after which he moved to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, where he served as state secretary until November 2009.
According to the prosecutor’s office, he has been charged with, among other things, espionage, disclosure of state secrets, and attempted high treason.
The statement also notes that another former high-ranking BND official was arrested on suspicion of having passed hundreds of classified documents to Hanning in exchange for money.
Arrest
According to media reports, Hanning was arrested on the morning of October 6 at his home in Nordwalde, near the western German city of Münster.
Another suspect, identified as Manfred D., was arrested in Bavaria.
While Hanning served as head of intelligence, D. was his chief of staff. He later also worked under Hanning at the Ministry of the Interior until 2009.
He has been charged with "aiding and abetting an attempt at high treason and espionage against the state."
2,000 documents
According to the prosecutor’s office, the two men may have agreed to cooperate in 2010.
From 2012 through March 2026, Manfred D. served as chief of staff to Hanning’s successors at the BND, where he had access to a large number of classified documents, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
"The information currently available indicates that, over many years, Manfred D. passed on approximately 2,000 documents to Hanning, many of which contained classified information intended exclusively for internal use by the Federal Intelligence Service," the prosecutor’s office said.
They added that Manfred D. likely passed information to Hanning at least until mid-2022, and that Hanning used it in his private consulting practice.
Hanning is also accused of "maintaining close contact with a representative of another foreign intelligence service, to whom he passed on political information over the course of several years, based in part on materials provided by Manfred D."
The prosecutor’s office did not specify which country’s intelligence service was involved.
The detainees are expected to appear before an investigating judge shortly.
