Former German spy chief arrested on treason and espionage suspicions

German authorities arrested former intelligence chief August Hanning and a longtime aide on Tuesday, accusing them of trading classified documents for money and using some of the information in contacts with foreign intelligence services.

Hanning, 80, led Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, known as the BND, from 1998 to 2005. Federal prosecutors said he is strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets, attempted treason and espionage. The aide, identified under German privacy rules as Manfred D., is accused of aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage. Prosecutors have not identified the foreign intelligence services involved.

The two men allegedly agreed in 2010 that Manfred D. would pass BND intelligence to Hanning in exchange for payment. Manfred D. had served as Hanning’s chief of staff and held the same role for later BND presidents from 2012 until 2026, giving him access to confidential information, prosecutors said.

“The current findings suggest that, over the years, Manfred D. provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents,” many containing classified information intended exclusively for internal BND use, prosecutors said. NPR reported that the material included documents used for executive intelligence briefings. It was not immediately clear whether the alleged transfers continued until the arrests.

Prosecutors said Hanning used information from the aide in his private consulting work. On one occasion, they allege, he used classified intelligence to draft an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service. Authorities said they have not established whether the analysis reached its intended recipient.

Hanning also maintained close contact for several years with a representative of a different foreign intelligence service, prosecutors said. They allege he passed that person political information based in part on material supplied by Manfred D.

Police searched both men’s premises Tuesday. Accounts of their arrest locations differed: NPR reported that Hanning was arrested in Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen in southern Germany and Manfred D. in Steinfurt in the west. The BBC, citing local media, reported that Hanning was arrested at his home in Nordwalde near Münster and Manfred D. in Bavaria. The BBC said Manfred D. was due in court Tuesday and Hanning on Wednesday.

The investigation grew out of a separate case involving Hamburg businesswoman Christina Block and a custody dispute over her children. Federal prosecutors said evidence relevant to the intelligence case was found during a search of Hanning’s residence connected to that inquiry. The BBC reported that investigators found an electronic storage device containing sensitive information, including recent BND documents.

According to NPR, Hanning and a retired Hamburg police official are suspected of accepting a contract in 2022 to abduct Block’s children. The BBC reported that investigators allege Hanning was involved in an earlier attempted kidnapping, an allegation he denies. NPR said Block’s children were abducted from her ex-husband in Denmark in January 2024; the BBC reported that Hamburg prosecutors accused her of orchestrating a kidnapping in 2023.

Opposition Greens lawmaker Konstantin von Notz called the allegations “hard-hitting and deeply troubling” and urged a swift, thorough investigation, NPR reported. He also called for restrictions on private consulting work by former officials who held security clearances.