German ex-spy chief arrested for treason: What we know
The man who led Germany’s intelligence agency from 1998 to 2005 has been arrested on suspicion of espionage and attempted treason, according to the country’s federal prosecutor’s office.
The office announced on Tuesday that August Hanning, 80, was arrested and faces charges including “treasonous espionage, obtaining state secrets, attempted treason” through contact with foreign intelligence services.
The office has not specified which country or countries Hanning is accused of working for. Citing unnamed sources, however, German news outlet Der Spiegel reported that Hanning was in contact with a representative of an Azerbaijani intelligence agency.
In 2025, prosecutors also accused Hanning of having ties with Israeli spies in a separate case, which ultimately led them to investigate the former intelligence chief over alleged espionage for other agencies. If found guilty, treason carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment in Germany.
German news outlet Deutsche Welle described Hanning’s arrest as Germany’s “biggest espionage scandal of the century”.
Who is August Hanning?
Born in Nordwalde, Westphalia, western Germany, in 1946, Hanning served as head of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1998 to 2005. He later worked at the Federal Ministry of the Interior and served as a state secretary until 2009 before becoming a private consultant.
German media showed pictures of Hanning being taken from his red-brick house in Nordwalde, close to Münster, to a bulletproof vehicle by masked officers on Tuesday morning.
What do prosecutors allege?
Prosecutors allege that Hanning used classified intelligence to “draft an analysis” for a foreign intelligence service and maintained “close contact” with another foreign spying service for “several years” while working as a private consultant.
They said that in 2010, Hanning agreed to receive confidential information from his former bureau chief, identified only as “Manfred D”, who remained in office until March this year, and was preparing to provide an “analysis” of the information to a foreign power in exchange for money. It remains unclear whether the analysis was ultimately shared.
Hanning is also alleged to have passed on potentially sensitive political information, partly based on information provided by Manfred D, to a contact representing a separate foreign intelligence service.
Manfred D was also arrested on Tuesday and charged with aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage.
“Both suspects are believed to have agreed, in the spring of 2010, to have Manfred D continuously transmit valuable intelligence from the Federal Intelligence Service to Hanning in exchange for remuneration,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Over the years, Manfred D allegedly provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many of which contained classified information intended exclusively for internal use by the BND, particularly for executive intelligence briefings.
Prosecutors said Hanning was allegedly planning to use the information in connection with his private consulting work.
The alleged espionage by Hanning and Manfred D was uncovered during an investigation into a separate kidnapping case involving German businesswoman and steakhouse chain heiress Christina Block.
In that case, Hamburg prosecutors accused Block of arranging the kidnapping of her two youngest children in 2023 amid a custody dispute. Prosecutors said Hanning put Block in contact with a private Israeli espionage firm to carry out the abductions.
The former spy chief and a police officer were accused of accepting more than €100,000 ($112,000) from Block in exchange for returning her children from Denmark, where they were living with their father. The trial is ongoing.
What do we know about the documents allegedly passed on?
Little detail is available about the contents of the 2,000 documents. However, German news outlet Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that some of them related to Iran’s nuclear programme and the Russian military.
It added that other materials were highly sensitive and classified as secret by allied intelligence agencies in other countries.
What has the government said?
Marc Henrichmann, chairman of the parliament’s intelligence oversight committee, said Berlin would not “tolerate the betrayal of secrets”.
“Whoever allies themselves with the enemies of our liberal democracy will be found out,” he said, adding that Hanning’s alleged actions would amount to “trampling his official duties underfoot”.
The current head of the BND, Martin Jaeger, told the German Rheinische Post newspaper that the agency had “quickly carried out extensive internal investigations” into the former chief before federal prosecutors took over the case.
“For the BND and for me, there are no compromises when it comes to internal security,” Jaeger said, adding that the case had “not called into question any of my aims or any of my priorities”.
Have there been similar spy scandals in Germany before?
Yes.
In 2023, a high-ranking German intelligence officer, identified as “Carsten L”, was charged with high treason after prosecutors alleged that he obtained classified intelligence on the war in Ukraine and the Wagner mercenary group and shared it with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). His case is ongoing.
In 1974, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt was forced to resign following revelations that an East German spy had worked as his close aide for nearly two years.
Credit: Aljazeera
