August Hanning: Former BND President is taken into custody on suspicion of espionage

Former BND President August Hanning has to be taken into custody on suspicion of espionage. An investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe has executed the arrest warrant against the 80-year-old, a spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutor's Office told the dpa news agency.

The highest prosecutor in Germany accuses Hanning of secret service spying, treasonous spying, spying on state secrets and attempted treason.

Hanning's former office manager at the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Manfred D., was taken into custody on Tuesday for aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous spying. A few hours earlier, officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office had arrested the two on the basis of arrest warrants - Hanning in the Steinfurt district in North Rhine-Westphalia, D. in the Bavarian district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen.

According to the information, they probably agreed in 2010 that the ex-office manager should continually provide Hanning, who had left office five years earlier, with valuable BND intelligence for a fee. Hanning is said to have used this information profitably in his consulting work.