Overview
- German federal investigators arrested August Hanning and his former chief of staff after raids on Tuesday and an investigative judge at the Federal Court of Justice ordered Hanning into pre‑trial detention on Wednesday.
- The Federal Prosecutor has charged Hanning with secret‑agent activity, espionage‑related offences and attempted high treason while Manfred D. faces charges of aiding the alleged abuse of classified material.
- Investigators say Manfred D. supplied Hanning with about 2,000 confidential BND documents over roughly a decade and a half, with transfers said to extend until about June 2022.
- The probe began when material was found in searches connected to the separate 'Block' case and now includes inquiries into whether some documents produced analysis for a foreign intelligence service, a report that named Azerbaijan which Baku denies.
- The arrests have sparked cross‑party pressure for stricter cooling‑off rules, new transparency requirements for former senior spies and a comprehensive internal and diplomatic damage assessment for the BND and its partners.