German Former Intelligence Chief Charged with Treasonous Espionage

BERLIN: A former head of Germany's foreign intelligence service who is charged with passing state secrets to a foreign intelligence service was ordered held in pretrial detention after a judge issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday. August Hanning, 80, who is "strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets, attempted treason, and espionage," led the Federal Intelligence Service, known by its German acronym BND, from 1998 to 2005. He was arrested on Tuesday. A former aide of Hanning, identified only as Manfred D. in line with privacy rules in Germany, was also arrested Tuesday and is already in pretrial detention. He's accused of aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage. Prosecutors didn't reveal who exactly the two men were suspected of spying for or which foreign intelligence services they provided with classified information. Here's what to know about one of the biggest security breaches in German history: The two men allegedly agreed in 2010 that Manfred D. would continuously provide Hanning — who had left office five years earlier — with valuable foreign intelligence information in exchange for payment. Manfred D. served as chief of staff for several subsequent BND presidents from 2012 until this year. The federal prosecutor's office says that Hanning allegedly used this information to his financial advantage in his private consulting work. Based on the current status of the investigation, Manfred D. is said to have provided his former boss with approximately 2,000 documents over a 12-year period through June 2022. In one instance, Hanning is alleged to have used classified information to prepare an analysis for an employee of a foreign intelligence service. However, "it has not yet been possible to determine whether the report reached its intended recipient," the federal prosecutor's office said. "In another instance, Hanning is alleged to have passed on information following an extensive exchange — also with an employee of another intelligence service," a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office said Tuesday.