BND: Spionageverdacht – Ex-BND-Präsident Hanning in Untersuchungshaft

German secret service agency BND has charged former BND President, August Hanning, with espionage and treason. A judge from the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe issued the arrest warrant for the 80-year-old. The top prosecution authority in Germany accuses Hanning of secret agent activity, domestic espionage, tapping into state secrets, and attempting treason.

Hanning's former office manager at the BND, Manfred D., was arrested on Tuesday on charges of aiding attempted treason and treasonous espionage. Just hours earlier, federal criminal police officers had apprehended both Hanning and D. on the basis of arrest warrants – Hanning in Steinfurt, North Rhine-Westphalia, and D. in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, Bavaria.

Allegedly, they were to allegedly agree in 2010 for D. to continuously supply Hanning with valuable BND intelligence in exchange for payment, which Hanning allegedly used to benefit his consulting business. Therefore, Hanning had access to secret information for up to twelve years, intended exclusively for internal German foreign service matters.

In one case, he allegedly used secret information to create a profile for an employee of a foreign intelligence apparatus. Whether this product reached its intended recipient remains unclear, the federal prosecution said. It is unclear which country. Hanning served as BND president from December 1998 to November 2005. According to the federal prosecution, D. followed Hanning as an assistant at the Federal Ministry of the Interior from December 2005 to November 2009, where Hanning was a state secretary.

Hanning then moved into the private sector and worked as a security consultant. D. allegedly worked for multiple BND presidents again between March 2012 and March 2026 as office manager. In this capacity, he reportedly had access to classified information. D. is now retired, according to dpa information. More: The Chancellor's office must clean up the BND.