A Karlsruhe judge orders the formal arrest of former BND chief August Hanning

A judge of Germany's Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe issued a formal arrest warrant on Wednesday for August Hanning, the man who ran the Bundesnachrichtendienst from 1998 to 2005. The Office of the Federal Prosecutor said the warrant covers suspected espionage and attempted treason. Hanning, 80, had been detained on Tuesday. A second man, identified only as Manfred D., a former chief of staff to successive BND presidents who retired in March this year, also faces formal arrest.

Prosecutors say that in 2010 Hanning agreed to pay Manfred D. for confidential information, and that he received about 2,000 documents through June 2022. A prosecution spokesperson said some of those documents were classified. The suspected use of the papers was an analysis prepared for a foreign intelligence service. The prosecutor's office has not named that service.

What the lawyer admits, and what he denies

Hanning's lawyer said his client partially admitted the allegations and denied selling information. The lawyer's formulation was precise. It was true, he said, that Hanning was in possession of confidential documents. The allegation that he passed on information in those documents to Germany's detriment, let alone for payment, was incorrect.

That split is the core of the case as it stands in public. Possession of about 2,000 documents, some classified, from a serving chief of staff, is admitted in outline. Transmission to a foreign service, and payment for that transmission, is denied. Attempted treason, the charge named by prosecutors, can cover a step toward passing secrets that was not completed. The court file is not public.

Azerbaijan denies the Spiegel account

Der Spiegel, citing unnamed sources, reported that Hanning was in contact with a representative of an Azerbaijani intelligence agency. Azerbaijan's Media and Broadcasting Council called the claim disinformation aimed at damaging relations with Germany. A senior Azerbaijani official said Baku had asked German intelligence services through official channels and had been told the case had no connection to Azerbaijani intelligence. Prosecutors in Karlsruhe have not confirmed or denied the Spiegel account.

Hanning's career makes the document count harder to dismiss as a private archive. He led the BND for seven years, then moved to the interior ministry and served as a state secretary until 2009. After government he worked as a private consultant. Prosecutors say the contact with a foreign service, and the draft analysis, belong to that later period, and that the pipeline from Manfred D. ran from 2010 until June 2022, while D. was still inside the service. D. retired only in March 2026.

A leak measured in files, not in a single cable

German officials and reporters have already called the case one of the largest classified leaks since the end of the Cold War. The number that supports that description is the prosecutor's: about 2,000 documents, some classified, over twelve years, from a chief of staff who stayed in post until this spring. Whether those files left Germany is the fact the lawyer disputes and the warrant treats as the suspicion to be tried.

Hanning is 80. A formal arrest warrant from the Federal Court of Justice is not a conviction. It does mean the investigating judge accepted that the suspicion was strong enough to hold him. The next public markers are the naming, or continued refusal to name, the foreign service, and the charge sheet against Manfred D., whose retirement in March did not put him outside the case.