Ex-German Spy Chief Arrested; US, UK Intel May Be Compromised
August Hanning, who headed the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1998 to 2005, was detained Tuesday on suspicion of espionage and treason. Prosecutors allege he received classified material from a former colleague over several years and drew on it in reports and in exchanges with foreign intelligence contacts.
Some of the information the two men handled originated with foreign partner services, German security sources told the newspaper. “That means British and American intelligence information may also have been compromised,” the newspaper reported.
Manfred D., Hanning’s former office director, was arrested the same day. Federal prosecutors say he supplied Hanning with roughly 2,000 documents between 2010 and 2022, many marked for internal BND use, in exchange for payment.
According to the newspaper, US agencies, Britain’s MI6 and its signals intelligence agency GCHQ are now assessing whether information shared with European allies, and even their own sources, could be at risk. The newspaper said German authorities warned partner services of a possible breach before the arrests were made.
Judge orders pretrial detention
On Wednesday, an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe ordered the 80-year-old Hanning held in pretrial detention, bringing the arrest warrant into force, a spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said.
Investigators have established that Hanning used the confidential information at least once to prepare a security report for his consultancy work, and that he communicated with a foreign intelligence official. Authorities have not identified the country involved.
Several media outlets reported that the service in contact with Hanning was not Russian. The files he allegedly received nonetheless covered the Russian army and other sensitive subjects, including Iran’s nuclear program.
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