German media revealed secret collusion with arrested former intelligence chief, Azerbaijan denies it

August Hanning, the former director of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of treason and espionage. Some media broke the news that he had private contacts with Azerbaijani agents, but the Azerbaijani government immediately issued a statement strictly denying it.

Reuters reported that German prosecutors said Hanning paid an office manager at the Federal Intelligence Service to obtain intelligence information and then used the information to prepare an analysis report for an unnamed foreign intelligence agency official.

After Han Ning was arrested, the authoritative German news magazine "Der Spiegel" broke the news that he had previously had a private relationship with an Azerbaijani operator. However, the Media and Broadcasting Council, an Azerbaijani government agency, immediately issued a statement denying it and said the "Der Spiegel" report was baseless.

The Media and Broadcasting Council stressed: "The malicious intention behind this wave of disinformation operations is an attempt to harm relations between Azerbaijan and Germany."

The German Federal Prosecutor's Office declined to comment on Der Spiegel's report; Han Ning, the client, has not yet responded to Reuters' request for comment.