German federal prosecutors had August Hanning arrested on Tuesday, October 6, and an investigating judge ordered him held in pre-trial detention on Wednesday. Hanning was Germany’s spy chief from 1998 to 2005, running the foreign intelligence agency known as the BND. He is under strong suspicion of treasonous espionage, gathering state secrets, attempted treason and acting as an agent of a foreign intelligence service.
According to Der Spiegel, investigators believe the foreign intelligence officer at the center of the case was Azerbaijani. Police arrested Hanning, 80, at his home near Münster.
His former office chief, Manfred D., was arrested the same morning in Bavaria. A Federal Court of Justice investigating judge in Karlsruhe ordered D. held in pre-trial detention that afternoon.
Under German law, treason carries at least 1 year in prison, and life or at least 5 years in especially serious cases. Treasonous espionage carries 1 to 10 years.
Prosecutors Say His Former Office Chief Leaked Him Nearly 2,000 Secret Files Over 12 Years
Hanning ran the BND from December 1998 to the end of November 2005, with Manfred D. as his office chief. D. followed him to the Federal Interior Ministry while Hanning served there as state secretary from December 2005 to November 2009. From March 2012 to March 2026, D. ran the office of several later BND presidents.
Prosecutors said the 2 men agreed, probably in spring 2010, that D. would keep supplying Hanning with valuable BND intelligence for payment, which Hanning could use for profit in his private consulting work. Through June 2022, D. gave him nearly 2,000 documents, many of them classified. The documents were prepared for the BND leadership and for a regular intelligence briefing of top federal officials at the Chancellery.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR, citing security sources, reported that the documents included material on Iran’s nuclear program and the Russian military. They also included classified material from foreign partner intelligence services.
Der Spiegel Says the Secret Analysis Was Meant for an Azerbaijani Intelligence Officer
In one case, Hanning used classified material from D. to write an analysis for an employee of a foreign intelligence security apparatus, prosecutors said. Investigators have not established whether it reached the recipient. Der Spiegel reported that the intended recipient was an Azerbaijani intelligence officer.
Prosecutors also said Hanning spent several years in intensive contact with a member of a second state intelligence service. He supplied that person with political information, partly drawn from D.’s material. Prosecutors have named neither country, AFP reported the case does not involve Russia, and dpa reported the contacts likely include business partners from his consulting work, for example in Central Asia.
Hanning held a formal post in German-Azerbaijani relations until at least 2025. When the German-Azerbaijani Forum, an association promoting ties between the 2 countries, elected a new board in July 2025, it listed Hanning among the board members. Der Spiegel also reported his board membership, and Hanning’s lawyer did not comment on the Azerbaijan allegation.
Investigators suspect the information went to several international recipients for financial reasons, according to media reports. Die Welt previously reported that Hanning’s seat on the supervisory board of a Latvian bank put his own assets at risk.
Baku Calls the Reports “Disinformation” and Protests to Berlin
Baku denied any link on Wednesday, when Azerbaijan’s Media and Broadcasting Council called the reports “disinformation” and part of a “smear campaign” against Azerbaijan. The council claimed the forces behind them want to damage relations between Azerbaijan and Germany, but did not say which allegations it disputed. The finding that Hanning wrote an analysis for a foreign intelligence officer comes from Germany’s federal prosecutors.
The Baku-based APA news agency reported, citing diplomatic sources, that Azerbaijan protested to the German Chancellor’s office and Foreign Ministry through its special services and diplomatic channels. APA’s report claimed Der Spiegel accused Hanning of spying for Azerbaijan while he headed the BND from 1998 to 2005. Prosecutors say the documents reached him after he left the agency, through June 2022.
The Case Surfaced in a Kidnapping Probe Tied to a Former Israeli Security Chief
The espionage case grew out of a September 2025 search of Hanning’s home by Hamburg prosecutors investigating businesswoman Christina Block. Block is on trial over the abduction of her 2 youngest children from their father in Denmark on New Year’s Eve 2023/24. Hamburg prosecutors suspect Hanning and a retired state police officer accepted a 2022 commission from Block to take the children, and the file went to federal prosecutors in early May 2026.
According to Ynet, prosecutors believe Hanning later turned to the firm of former Shin Bet chief Yaakov Peri, CGI Group, to organize the abduction, and CGI denied any involvement. “I have nothing to do with the abduction of Christina Block’s children,” Hanning told Bild. According to t-online, a Hamburg police note from November 2025 concluded he was not involved in the 2023/24 abduction.
In July 2021, Hanning joined the advisory board of WHEN Group, an Israeli cybersecurity firm whose president was former Mossad chief Danny Yatom. Prosecutors have not named the second intelligence service in the espionage case.
Spy Agency Chief Promises “No Compromises” as Lawmakers Demand Answers
BND President Martin Jäger, who succeeded Bruno Kahl in September 2025, said the agency had opened extensive internal investigations early. “For the BND and for me, there are no compromises on internal security,” Jäger said.
Marc Henrichmann, who chairs the Bundestag’s intelligence oversight panel, said everything now has to be turned upside down. Green lawmaker Konstantin von Notz demanded a swift and full investigation. He said he has long pushed to restrict the private business of former intelligence chiefs.
2 Former Bundestag Members Already Convicted Over Azerbaijani Money
On July 30, 2025, a Munich court gave former CSU MP Eduard Lintner a 9-month suspended sentence. The court found he played a key role when Azerbaijan bought the votes of a since-deceased CDU MP. Prosecutors had accused Lintner of receiving about €4 million from Azerbaijan through British shell companies between 2008 and 2016, to pass on to Council of Europe members.
Lintner admitted in court that he forwarded payments from Azerbaijan but denied it was a crime. On January 22, 2026, the same court gave former CDU MP Axel Fischer a suspended sentence of 1 year and 2 months for accepting bribes as a member of parliament. Both men appealed.
Lintner passed the Azerbaijani money to CDU MP Karin Strenz. In June 2018, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe barred Strenz and Lintner from Council of Europe premises for life for breaching its code of conduct. Between 2012 and 2014, while Strenz and other assembly members took money and gifts from the Aliyev regime, the assembly voted down a key resolution on political prisoners in Azerbaijan.
