German spy chief arrested for treason

Submitted by MEE staff on Tue, 10/06/2026 - 18:50 August Hanning, who ran Germany's foreign intelligence service, had extensive links to Israeli intelligence

Then-German Interior Secretary of State August Hanning attends a press briefing in Rabat, Morocco, on 3 July 2007 (Abdelhak Senna/AFP) Off

Germany’s former spy chief was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of passing sensitive information to foreign powers, in a case that could be the biggest spy scandal in Europe since the Cold War.

August Hanning, who ran Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency from 1998 to 2005, was accused of espionage, treason and working for foreign intelligence services, federal prosecutors said.

The case is likely to raise questions about who Hanning passed intelligence to. The Financial Times reported that investigators had ruled out Russia, which Germany views as its main foe amid the war raging in Ukraine.

The BND is Germany's equivalent of the CIA. Hanning would have interacted with senior spies and business leaders across countries, including China. He is also known to have close ties with senior intelligence authorities in Israel.

Hanning came under investigators' crosshairs because of his alleged role in a separate matter. The former spy’s home in Hamburg was searched in September 2025 in connection with a high-profile child custody case involving Christina Block, the multi-millionaire heiress of a German steakhouse restaurateur.

Hanning’s ties to Israeli intelligence officials appear to have played a role in that case. In 2024, Hanning approached a former Shin Bet security service chief, Jacob Perry, about kidnapping Block’s two children from the home of her ex-husband in Denmark, German paper Bild reported. Der Spiegel also reported Hanning’s role in the attempted kidnapping.

Hanning denied any involvement in the case, saying he had never contacted Perry, who leads CGI Group, a private intelligence company headquartered in Tel Aviv.

The kidnappers allegedly assaulted Block’s ex-husband and dragged her 10-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter into a forest before bundling them into a car away from their father. The children’s mouths were duct-taped, and they were threatened with death if they screamed, according to German media reports.

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Israeli news site Haaretz said one of the kidnappers, an Israeli, was arrested in Cyprus and extradited to Germany.

Hanning and a retired police officer were accused of accepting a commission from Block of more than $112,000 in exchange for the kidnapping.

Hanning’s arrest has rocked Germany. The 80-year-old’s former chief of staff, known only as Manfred D, was also arrested on suspicion of aiding treason.

The aide is accused of using his position working for some of Hanning's successors to obtain classified information and sell it to his former boss.

Hanning then allegedly used the information in his private consulting work, which included preparing a briefing for a foreign spy and passing information to an agent of another foreign intelligence service, prosecutors said.

Germany would "not tolerate the betrayal of secrets", Marc Henrichmann, chairman of parliament's intelligence oversight committee, said in a statement to AFP.

"Whoever allies themselves with the enemies of our liberal democracy will be found out," he said, adding that Hanning's alleged behaviour would represent "trampling his official duties underfoot".

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