Former German spy chief arrested over alleged espionage and treason

Former German foreign intelligence chief August Hanning has been arrested on suspicion of attempted treason for allegedly paying to access secret documents and using them to prepare an analysis for a foreign spy service, federal prosecutors said.

Prosecutors did not identify the foreign intelligence service, and it was not immediately clear whether the analysis reached its intended recipient.

"Hanning is strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, obtaining state secrets, attempted treason and espionage," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Five years after his seven-year tenure as head of the BND intelligence service ended in 2005, Mr Hanning agreed with a former BND office manager to receive confidential intelligence information in exchange for payment, according to prosecutors.

The office manager, identified as Manfred D. in line with privacy rules, was also arrested on Tuesday and both were due to appear before a judge at the Federal Court of Justice.

'No compromises'

Prosecutors said Manfred D. is suspected of having supplied around 2,000 documents over the years, including classified material intended solely for internal use within the BND and senior-level intelligence briefings at the chancellery.

According to prosecutors, Mr Hanning used classified information supplied by D. to prepare an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service and for years shared political information with a representative of the spy agency.

According to information obtained by the SZ newspaper, the case does not involve Russia.

BND President Martin Jaeger said the agency had launched extensive internal investigations as soon as suspicions emerged, adding that "there can be no compromises on internal security".

Hanning did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters. The chancellery declined to comment.

Past spy scandals

Mr Hanning's arrest is the latest in a series of notorious espionage scandals in Germany.

West German Chancellor Willy Brandt was forced to resign in 1974 after it was revealed that an East German spy had worked as his close aide for nearly two years. In 1990, a senior West German counter-intelligence official was exposed for spying for East Germany throughout the 1980s and was later convicted of treason.

More recently, former domestic intelligence chief Hans-Georg Maassen said in 2024 he was now being monitored by the security agency he once ran over alleged right-wing political extremism, which he denied.