Ex-head of German intelligence detained on suspicion of espionage
In Germany, the former president of the Federal Intelligence Service BND, August Hanning, has been arrested. The Federal Prosecutor's Office suspects him, among other things, of espionage, obtaining state secrets, and attempted treason.
This was reported by the Federal Prosecutor's Office of Germany.
Together with the 80-year-old Hanning, law enforcement officers detained his former bureau chief Manfred D. He is suspected of aiding and abetting attempted treason and obtaining secret information.
The arrests took place on October 6 in Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia. Simultaneously, investigators began searches at premises associated with the suspects, as well as in Berlin.
Hanning headed the BND from December 1998 to November 2005. After that, he worked as a State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, and later moved to the private sector and provided security consulting.
According to the prosecutor's office, in the spring of 2010, Hanning and Manfred D. agreed that the latter, for a fee, would continue to pass valuable internal intelligence information to the former BND chief.
Manfred D. had extensive opportunities for this. After working with Hanning, he returned to the BND and from March 2012 to March 2026 worked as the bureau chief for several successive presidents of the service. In this position, he had access to a large volume of classified materials.
According to the investigation, by June 2022, Hanning could have received from him almost 2,000 documents. A significant part of the materials was classified and intended exclusively for internal use by the BND.
Among them were materials for the leadership of the intelligence service and for so-called intelligence meetings at the Federal Chancellery, where high-ranking government officials and heads of German security agencies discuss current threats.
As reported by Tagesschau, citing a joint investigation by NDR, WDR, and Süddeutsche Zeitung, the materials may have included particularly sensitive reports on Iran's nuclear program, the Russian army, and information obtained by the BND from foreign partner services.
The prosecutor's office believes that Hanning may have used the intelligence data in his own private consulting activities.
In one episode, according to investigators, he used secret information to prepare an analytical paper for an employee of a foreign intelligence service. Law enforcement authorities have not yet established whether this document was actually delivered to the recipient.
In addition, the prosecutor's office speaks of an "intensive exchange" between Hanning and a representative of another state intelligence service. For several years, he allegedly passed political information to him, part of which was based on documents obtained from Manfred D.
At the same time, German law enforcement did not name the state whose intelligence service Hanning may have contacted. According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, there is no confirmed link to Russia in the current investigation.
The new investigation arose from a completely different criminal case. In September 2025, during a search of Hanning's premises as part of an investigation into Hamburg entrepreneur Christina Block, law enforcement officers found materials that later attracted the attention of the Federal Prosecutor's Office.
Hanning had previously come under scrutiny due to the possible involvement of his security company in the abduction of Block's children. After analyzing the seized materials, the Hamburg prosecutor's office passed the information to federal investigators, who in May 2026 opened a separate case.
The German prosecutor's office emphasizes that these are suspicions, not guilt proven in court. Hanning and Manfred D. must be brought before a judge of the Federal Court of Justice, who will decide on their further detention.
Based on materials from: Federal Prosecutor's Office of Germany, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Tagesschau
