A Federal Court of Justice judge ordered August Hanning held after Tuesday's detention. His lawyer said he had confidential papers but denied selling information. Azerbaijan denied any link.
A judge at Germany's Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe issued a formal arrest warrant on Wednesday for August Hanning, the former head of the BND, the Office of the Federal Prosecutor said. The warrant is the step that lets authorities keep the 80-year-old in custody after his detention on Tuesday on suspicion of espionage and attempted treason.
Prosecutors allege that in 2010 Hanning agreed to pay an official identified as Manfred D. for confidential information, and that he received about 2,000 documents through June 2022, some of them classified. They say he used the material in an analysis for a foreign intelligence service. They have not named that service, and Reuters said it was unclear whether the analysis reached its intended recipient. Manfred D., chief of staff to successive BND heads until his retirement in March, was also placed under formal arrest on Wednesday.
Hanning's lawyer told Die Welt that Hanning had confidential documents but that the claim he passed information on to Germany's detriment, or for payment, was incorrect. Der Spiegel reported investigators were looking at a possible Azerbaijan connection. Azerbaijan's Media and Broadcasting Council called that groundless, and a senior Azerbaijani official told Reuters that Baku had been told the case had no link to Azerbaijani intelligence.
Marc Henrichmann, who chairs the parliamentary committee overseeing the intelligence services, told Deutschlandfunk he was stunned but that comparisons with the Guillaume affair of the 1970s were a stretch because the facts were not yet clear. Hanning led the BND from 1998 to 2005 and later served as a state secretary.
This item is the formal warrant and the lawyer's denial, not a finding of guilt. No trial date was in the Wednesday prosecutor statement.
People Sentiments Negative
- Hanning's lawyer said possession of confidential documents was true but selling them was not.
- Marc Henrichmann said he was stunned but that a Cold War comparison was premature.
- Azerbaijan's media council called reports of a link groundless disinformation.