They arrest an ex-head of German intelligence accused of spying for a foreign country
The German prosecutor accuses August Hanning of attempted high treason and activities as an espionage agent, but does not detail with which country he is suspected of cooperating
BarcelonaA former head of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND), August Hanning, was arrested this Tuesday accused of spying for a foreign country, according to the Office of the Public Prosecutor General. Authorities suspect that Hanning, who presided over the BND between 1998 and 2005, attempted to commit high treason by acting in the service of another country's intelligence agency after he had already left office. According to the Prosecutor's statement, he is being investigated for alleged espionage constituting high treason, obtaining state secrets, attempted high treason, and activities as an intelligence agent.
Hanning was arrested in Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen, in southern Germany, by agents of the Criminal Investigation Office, who also searched properties in Berlin related to the accused. The Prosecutor's Office has not revealed which country the suspects allegedly spied for. According to the newspaper Welt, for several years there have been suspicions that the former German intelligence chief collaborated with the Russian security service FSB. But according to an investigation by German media, including the public broadcasters WDR and NDR, the foreign intelligence services with which Hanning allegedly cooperated do not include those of Russia.
Furthermore, the police have arrested an alleged accomplice, identified as Manfred D., who was Hanning's chief of staff when he headed the intelligence services and was also his assistant when he was Secretary of State at the Ministry of the Interior, between 2005 and 2009. This second detainee later worked for other BND presidents and is suspected of having used his position as chief of staff to provide confidential information to Hanning, who worked as a private security consultant after leaving public office.
Sale of classified information
According to the prosecutor's statement, presumably, in 2010 the accused agreed that Manfred D. would continuously obtain valuable information from the Federal Intelligence Service to pass it on to Hanning in exchange for payment, so that he could use it "profitably in the framework of his private consulting work".
The prosecution accuses Manfred D. of providing Hanning with nearly 2,000 documents, "including much information classified as confidential" and which were intended exclusively for the internal use of the intelligence services. Furthermore, Hanning maintained an intense exchange with a member of another state intelligence service, without determining from which country, to whom he supplied political information for years.
Hanning will appear this Tuesday and Wednesday before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice, who will decide on his imprisonment. This is not the first case of alleged espionage in the German intelligence services: in 2022 a high-ranking official identified as Carsten L. was already arrested as a suspect of being a Russian double agent, although the trial against him has not yet concluded.
