Former head of the German secret arrested on suspicion of espionage and treason

“Hanning is strongly suspected of constitutive espionage of treason, (...) gathering information subject to state secrecy (...), attempted high treason (...), as well as agent activities on behalf of a foreign intelligence service, needed.

The suspect directed the BND between 1998 and 2005, and was Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior from 2005 to 2009.

The facts that you're a suspect occurred after you passed the espionage service command, the D.A. said.

One of his former collaborators, Manfred D., who continued to work at the BND, was also detained.

A judge should decide today on the possible application of the preventive detention measure.

“ The two suspects will have agreed, plausibly in the spring of 2010, that Manfred D. would regularly provide Hanning, on remuneration, with valuable information from the BND,” the prosecutor said.

“Hanning should be able to exploit this information for profit in the context of the private consultant activity, which he had started in the meantime,” he added.

According to the same source, about 2,000 documents will have been transmitted at least by June 2022.

Hanning will have used in particular classified content to draw up an analysis for an “official of a foreign information service”.

You will also have been “in close contact with a representative of another foreign information service,” the prosecutor said, without specifying.

The investigation for espionage and treason to the former head of the BND was initiated after searches in the context of another process.

Hanning was suspected of helping the heiress of a well-known German restaurant chain, Christina Block, organize the kidnapping of two of her children to remove them from her ex-husband.