They arrest an ex-head of German intelligence accused of spying for a foreign country

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 Prosecutor General's Office. 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 his post. 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. And some German media have already described it as one of the most significant espionage scandals in the country since the Cold War.

Hanning, 80, was arrested at his home in Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen, in southern Germany, by agents of the Criminal Investigations Office, who also searched properties in Berlin related to the accused. The Prosecutor's Office has not revealed for which country he allegedly spied. 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 public broadcasters WDR and NDR, the foreign intelligence services with which Hanning allegedly cooperated do not include those of Russia.

In addition, police have arrested an alleged accomplice, identified as Manfred D., who was Hanning's chief of staff when he presided over the intelligence services and was also his assistant when he was Secretary of State at the Interior Ministry, between 2005 and 2009. This second detainee later worked for other BND presidents and is suspected of having taken advantage of his role 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 Office statement, Hanning presumably agreed in 2010 that Manfred D. would continuously obtain valuable information from the Federal Intelligence Service and pass it on to him in exchange for payment, so that he could use it "profitably within the framework of his private consulting work."

The Prosecutor's Office accuses Manfred D. of providing Hanning with nearly 2,000 documents at least until mid-2022, including much information classified as confidential and intended exclusively for the internal use of intelligence services. Furthermore, it adds that Hanning maintained an intense exchange with a member of another intelligence service, without specifying which country, to whom he supplied political information for years.

According to the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, among the documents were some related to the Iranian nuclear program and the Russian army, as well as highly sensitive material classified as secret by allied intelligence agencies from other countries.

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. However, considering the position Hanning held, this is considered one of the most significant cases of alleged espionage in Germany.

The current president of the intelligence services, Martin Jaeger, has stated that the agency launched an exhaustive internal investigation as soon as the suspicions appeared. "There can be no concessions regarding internal security," he stressed. The chairman of the German Parliament's intelligence oversight committee, Marc Henrichmann, has stated that the country "will not tolerate the betrayal of secrets." "Whoever allies themselves with the enemies of our liberal democracy will be discovered," he told the AFP news agency. Security expert Roderich Kiesewetter told the Handelsblatt that the case could strain relations with Germany's intelligence allies, arguing that such espionage cases have "a heavy impact on trust and are particularly damaging to Germany."

The alleged possession of intelligence documents by Hanning came to light during the investigation of a case related to businesswoman Christina Block, accused of attempting to kidnap two of her children, whom her ex-husband had taken to Denmark during a custody dispute. The Hamburg public prosecutor's office accused Block of orchestrating the kidnapping in 2023, and investigators allege that Hanning was involved in a previous kidnapping attempt of the children, which he denies. According to local media, state criminal police agents discovered a data storage device that contained confidential information, including recent BND documents.