A former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service was arrested on Tuesday (October 6, 2026) on suspicion that he had passed state secrets to a foreign intelligence service, the federal prosecutor’s office said.
The statement did not reveal who the two men were suspected of spying for. The premises of both men were searched on Tuesday (October 6). The prosecutor’s office said Manfred D. worked as Hanning’s chief of staff and later served as chief of staff for several subsequent BND presidents from 2012 until 2026. Both suspects are believed to have agreed in 2010 to have Manfred D. continuously transmit valuable intelligence from the BND to Hanning in exchange for payment, the statement said.
August Hanning, who led the Federal Intelligence Service, known by its German acronym BND, from 1998 to 2005, is “strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets, attempted treason, and espionage,” the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “In his role, he had access to confidential information,” the prosecutor’s office said. “The current findings suggest that, over the years, Manfred D. provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many of which contained classified information to be used exclusively by the federal intelligence service for internal purposes, particularly for executive intelligence briefings,” the statement said.
German opposition lawmaker calls for a quick probe
“This is a hard-hitting and deeply troubling story,” said von Notz, a member of the Greens party and also the German parliament committee overseeing the intelligence services.
