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eality always finds a way to be stranger than fiction. Germany’s former spy chief, 80-year-old August Hanning, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of espionage, attempted treason, and spying for another country.
It comes as Germany already has a senior officer on trial after they were accused of passing classified information to Russia.
Counterintelligence (literally)
Hanning left Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service in 2005, but prosecutors say his access to its secrets didn’t end there:
Five years after leaving, he began paying his former chief of staff for classified intelligence and had gathered roughly 2,000 secret documents by 2022.
In one case, Hanning allegedly used those documents to prepare an analysis for a foreign intelligence officer.
How they uncovered it is even more interesting: Investigators found the intelligence documents while searching Hanning’s property in a separate case involving steakhouse heiress Christina Block, who herself is accused of arranging the kidnapping of two of her children during a custody dispute.
Who did he give the secrets to? Authorities haven’t revealed which countries Hanning allegedly spied for, however, prosecutors say Hanning connected Block with a private security firm run by former Israeli intelligence operatives, though he denies involvement.
