Arrest | Ex-BND president under suspicion of espionage

Former BND President August Hanning Photo: dpa/Michael Kappeler Karlsruhe.  Former top spy, now under suspicion himself: The surprising arrest of former BND President August Hanning caused a stir on Tuesday. Hanning is said to have bought secret information and used it to create an analysis for a foreign secret service, as the federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe announced. According to information from the AFP news agency, this is not about Russia. The investigators got on Hanning's trail during the Block Trial in Hamburg.

What makes the case so spectacular is the celebrity of the accused. For years, the lawyer Hanning held important positions in Germany, including working in the Federal Chancellery and the Ministry of the Interior. At the end of 1998 he took over the management of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). When he left there at the end of 2005, he went to the Federal Ministry of the Interior as State Secretary.

At his side at both posts was Manfred D., who was his office manager at the BND and his assistant at the ministry. Hanning is said to have received the secret information from D., and D. was also arrested on Tuesday. According to investigators, the two men probably agreed to work together again in 2010, after Hanning's career ended.

At that time, Hanning worked as a private consultant. The Federal Prosecutor's Office alleges that D. was supposed to provide him with valuable BND intelligence in exchange for money. This is said to have been possible for him because he worked for the BND again from 2012, this time as office manager for subsequent presidents. There D. had access to information that was supposed to remain secret. 

Hanning wanted to use the information he had purchased profitably. D. is said to have passed on around 2,000 documents to him by June 2022, including material that was classified as classified information. The Federal Prosecutor's Office explained that this was intended exclusively for internal purposes of the Federal Intelligence Service - especially for the so-called intelligence service situation briefing. 

Hanning is said to have prepared an analysis for an employee of a foreign secret service security apparatus based on such findings, which D. had passed on to him - although it is not clear whether this reached him. It is not known which country it is about.

Hanning also obtained political information from the material, which he gave to an employee of another state secret service. He is said to have had intensive exchanges with him for years, as the Federal Prosecutor's Office announced.

The suspected espionage was discovered during a raid on Hanning last year. It was originally about completely different allegations in connection with the alleged kidnapping of the children of steakhouse chain heiress Christina Block. What the Hamburg public prosecutor's office found during the search was later brought in by the Federal Prosecutor's Office. 

The Karlsruhe authorities took over the investigation against Hanning and D. - the former BND chief is accused, among other things, of espionage and attempted treason; D. is being investigated on suspicion of aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous spying. Both men were due to be brought before the investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice on Tuesday and Wednesday, who will decide on pre-trial detention.

The current BND President Martin Jäger confirmed internal investigations. The BND "initiated extensive internal investigations early and immediately, which confirmed the suspicion," he told the "Rheinische Post" and the "Taz".

The federal government did not want to comment on the arrests when contacted by AFP. She referred to the ongoing investigation.  AFP/nd

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