Berlin [Germany], October 6 (ANI): Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office agents have arrested former Federal Intelligence Service (BND) President August Hanning and his former chief of staff, Manfred D, on serious charges including treasonous espionage, spying on state secrets, attempted treason, and espionage, Euro News reported.
In an official statement, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced that the two German nationals were taken into custody on Tuesday, in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen County, Bavaria, and Steinfurt County, North Rhine-Westphalia, pursuant to warrants issued by the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice. Law enforcement officers simultaneously searched properties in both locations as well as in Berlin.
Hanning, who served as President of the BND from December 1998 to November 2005 and later as State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior between December 2005 and November 2009, is “strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets, attempted treason, and espionage.”
Manfred D, who served as Hanning’s chief of staff at the BND and parliamentary assistant at the Interior Ministry before resuming duties as chief of staff for several subsequent BND presidents from March 2012 to March 2026, is charged with “aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage.”
According to federal prosecutors, the two suspects agreed in the spring of 2010 that Manfred D would systematically leak confidential intelligence files to Hanning in exchange for payment. Over the years, Manfred D allegedly provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many containing restricted intelligence intended strictly for internal agency use and executive briefings involving senior officials from federal ministries and German security agencies at the Federal Chancellery.
Investigators revealed that Hanning utilised the classified material to enhance his private consultancy services. Prosecutors stated that on one occasion, Hanning “used classified intelligence provided by Manfred D. to draft an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service,” though it remains undetermined if the report reached its destination. Furthermore, Hanning was “in close contact with a representative of another foreign intelligence service, to whom he passed on political information, partially based on material provided by Manfred D., for several years.”
The wide-ranging probe originated after a search of Hanning’s property by Hamburg prosecutors in September 2025 during an investigation involving German businesswoman Christina Block and alleged leaks from the Chancellery.
Euronews, citing reports by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, along with public broadcasters WDR and NDR, previously pointed to evidence uncovered during those proceedings regarding the unauthorised handling of sensitive state documents.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office officially took over the investigation in early May 2026, conducting the probe alongside the BND and the Federal Criminal Police Office. Both suspects were brought before the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice to review the charges and determine pre-trial detention. (ANI)
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