Prosecutors have opened a case into one of Germany’s former chief spies after he allegedly obtained classified information for a ‘foreign power’.
August Hanning, the former chief of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, has also been arrested on charges of espionage and treason.
Hanning worked at the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1998 to 2005, and was arrested at his home in Nordwalde, Germany.
A second former BND employee, named only as ‘Mandred D’, is accused of handing over around 2,000 classified documents to Hanning.
In exchange for using his access to ‘highly confidential’ information, Mandred was allegedly paid.
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Hanning is also accused of keeping ‘close contact’ with an unknown ‘representative of another foreign intelligence service’.
There are fears that Hanning passed on political information and other classified information to the foreign intelligence service.
Authorities released a statement reading: ‘Over the years, Manfred D provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many of which contained classified information to be used exclusively by the Federal Intelligence Service for internal purposes.
‘On one occasion, Hanning used classified intelligence … to draft an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service,’ prosecutors said, noting it was not clear if ‘the material reached the intended recipient.’
In 2024, another data breach saw Germany’s Luftwaffe air force Lieutenant General leak British military secrets to Russia while on a video call – an incident which was deemed the ‘worst security breach’ since the Cold War.
Ingo Gerhartz, the Luftwaffe air force Lieutenant General, was speaking with other officers and a general about the process of delivering Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine.
But a recording of the 38-minute call was broadcast on Russian state television, with Mr Gerhartz heard claiming ‘British troops were already on the ground’ – a highly sensitive detail which has worried fellow Nato allies.
In 2023, the BND was thrust into the spotlight after a German double agent was accused of leaking British intelligence reports about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the Kremlin.
At the time, UK spy chiefs were said to be ‘incensed’ by claims that top-secret files were shared by a suspect named only as Carsten L, who had a senior role in Germany’s foreign intelligence agency.
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