Former German spy chief August Hanning has been arrested by the Federal Prosecutors Office on charges of espionage, treason and possession of classified information for a foreign power.
Hanning headed the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1998 to 2005 before moving into private consultancy. Prosecutors allege he used state secrets to draft analyses for a foreign intelligence service and kept contact with another spying agency. Details of the countries involved have not yet been released.
Police also detained former BND employee Manfred D, accusing him of handing Hanning approximately 2,000 documents in return for payment. D, who had been chief of staff to Hanning’s successors, allegedly used his position to access highly confidential material which he passed on.
Hanning was taken into custody at his home in Nordwalde near Münster, while D was arrested in Bavaria. He faces a court hearing next week.
The investigation came after officials discovered a data storage device containing sensitive BND files and prompted scrutiny of the agency’s handling of intelligence that, in some cases, informs Germany’s environmental and energy strategy.
This is not the first BND controversy: in 2023, an officer was charged with passing state secrets about the Ukraine war to Russia, and a trial over similar allegations is still ongoing.
