Former German intelligence chief arrested in BND information case

Federal Criminal Police officers arrested August Hanning and Manfred D. on 6 October 2026 under judicial warrants, Germany’s federal prosecutor said. The arrests took place in Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia, with searches also beginning there and in Berlin. [1]

Hanning, who led Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, from 1998 to 2005, is suspected of treason-related spying, seeking state secrets, attempted treason and acting as an intelligence agent. D., a former office head for Hanning and later BND presidents, is accused of aiding attempted treason and treason-related spying. These are allegations in the arrest warrants, not findings of guilt. [1]

Prosecutors allege that the two men probably agreed in spring 2010 that D. would obtain BND information for Hanning in return for payment. They say D. supplied him with nearly 2,000 documents over the following years, through June 2022, many of them classified. That figure describes the alleged flow of documents to Hanning, not a count of documents sent to foreign services. [1]

The prosecutor describes two distinct foreign contacts. Hanning allegedly prepared an analysis using classified material for a foreign intelligence or security official, but investigators have not established whether it reached its intended recipient. Separately, prosecutors allege that he supplied political information over several years to a member of a different government intelligence service, partly drawing on material from D. [1]