Detenido por traición el exjefe del servicio de inteligencia alemán

German former intelligence chief August Hanning has been arrested on suspicion of treason for allegedly selling state secrets to a foreign power. The office of the German prosecutor's office announced that Hanning, who headed the country's external intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), from 1998 to 2005, and later served as a senior official in the German Interior Ministry from 2005 to 2009, was apprehended on Tuesday morning at his home in Steinfurt, near the Dutch border.

The investigation centers on the allegation that Hanning unlawfully obtained thousands of classified documents over the past 16 years and sold at least part of the information to a foreign nation. Sources familiar with the probe have indicated that Russia is not currently mentioned in connection with the case. Hanning, who was 80 years old at the time of his arrest, previously headed the BND and later served as the highest-ranking official in Germany's Interior Ministry.

Manfred D, a high-ranking official within the BND and Hanning's former chief of staff during his tenure at the BND and subsequently in the Interior Ministry, was also detained at his home in Bavaria on suspicion of complicity in the treason charge. Manfred D had served as Hanning's chief of staff during his time leading the BND and later remained in that role under three different BND directors starting in 2012 until his retirement in 2025.

This position granted him access to confidential information about decision-making processes and high-level classified material from the agency.

According to the federal prosecutor's office, Manfred D reportedly agreed with Hanning in the spring of 2010 to continuously transmit valuable intelligence from the Federal Intelligence Service to Hanning in exchange for remuneration. The prosecutor's office stated that Hanning planned to profit from this information through his private consulting services.

It is believed that Manfred D provided Hanning with around 2,000 documents, many of which contained classified intelligence intended only for internal BND use, specifically for high-level intelligence reports directed at top officials.

The nature of the intelligence material at the center of the leak is expected to raise questions among the BND's closest partners worldwide. As the leading intelligence agency in Europe, the BND routinely receives highly classified information from agencies such as the CIA, MI6, and the DGSE. The agency operates under an absolute trust that the information will not be leaked or shared with third parties.

According to the German prosecutor's office, Hanning used at least one instance of classified BND information to draft a report for a foreign intelligence official. It is unclear if such a report, found in Hanning's possession, was ever sent to the intended foreign intelligence service.

The arrest of Hanning comes at a time when the German government led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz is seeking to implement significant reforms in the country's intelligence services, aiming to grant them expanded and new competencies. The BND's last security scandal involved Carsten L., a department head within the agency, who was detained in 2022 on espionage charges for allegedly providing documents of the highest confidentiality to Russia. Carsten L. denies the accusations.