Arrest of former BND chief Hanning on espionage charges
The 80-year-old former president of the German BND August Hanning was arrested today on charges of treasonable espionage. A former employee of the service was also arrested with him.
Former chief of German intelligence service BND arrested for disclosure of state secrets
The former president of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), August Hanning, was arrested early in the morning on suspicion of espionage, together with a former employee of the service. According to Ethnos, the facts became known through a joint investigation by the broadcasters WDR and NDR and the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating Hanning — head of the BND during the period 1998–2005 — for "treasonable espionage, disclosure of state secrets, attempted treason and espionage". The 80-year-old was arrested today by forces of the Federal Office for the Fight against Crime (BKA) at his residence in Nordwalde, near Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Purchase of classified information in exchange for payment
The second arrested man, Manfred D., worked at the BND until last spring and had served as head of personnel during Hanning's tenure. He is being investigated for "complicity in attempted treason and treasonable espionage" at least until 2022, and was arrested in Bavaria.
According to the newspaper BILD, Hanning is alleged to have purchased classified information from Manfred D. in exchange for financial payment, with the intention of "reselling it as part of his consultancy work". Prosecutorial authorities estimate that the former director used this material to draw up security assessments for a foreign intelligence service in one or more instances.
Contact with foreign agent — not Russian service
In a separate case, Hanning is alleged to have used information from internal BND documents in communication with a foreign agent. However, WDR, NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung clarify that this was not a Russian intelligence service.
The two arrested men are expected to be brought before the investigating judge of the Federal Court no later than the following day.
Case uncovered through child abduction trial
Initial evidence of Hanning's activities was discovered in the context of a completely different investigation: the trial of businesswoman Christina Block, who was accused of abducting her two children, in a custody dispute with her ex-husband. Hanning is alleged to have been involved in a previous attempt to abduct them — something he himself denies.
During a search of Hanning's residence in the context of that case, authorities found an electronic data storage device that contained extremely sensitive information from the BND — information to which the arrested man should not have had access. The material concerned, among other things, Iran's nuclear programme, the Russian military, as well as data from cooperating intelligence services of other states.
Secret federal investigation since May
Following the assessment of the documents by Hamburg authorities, the file was handed over to the federal services, which began their own — secret — investigation in May of the current year.
However, it remains unclear, according to the media outlets that conducted the journalistic investigation, how Manfred D. managed to remove the classified material from the BND facilities and deliver it to his former superior.
Source: Ethnos