Federal Prosecutor's Office: Ex-BND President Hanning in custody on suspicion of espionage

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

Accordingly, Hanning would have had information over a period of possibly twelve years that was intended exclusively for internal matters of the German foreign secret service. In one case, he is said to have used secret information to prepare an analysis for an employee of a foreign intelligence security apparatus. “It has not yet been possible to determine whether the product reached the addressee,” said the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. Which country it was about remained unclear.

Hanning was BND President from December 1998 to the end of November 2005. According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, Manfred D. is said to have followed Hanning as an assistant to the Federal Ministry of the Interior between December 2005 and November 2009, where Hanning was State Secretary. Hanning then switched to the private sector and worked as a security consultant.

According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, Manfred D. worked again as an office manager for several BND presidents between March 2012 and March 2026. In this role he had access to confidential information. According to dpa information, Manfred D. is now retired.