Germany arrests former domestic intelligence chief over alleged spying

Germany has arrested August Hanning, 80, the former head of its foreign intelligence service (BND), on suspicion of treason and spying for an overseas intelligence agency. Prosecutors allege that Hanning and his former chief of staff, Manfred D, engaged in a conspiracy in which Manfred D passed approximately 2,000 classified documents to Hanning in exchange for payment over several years. Prosecutors suspect Hanning intended to resell the documents through a consulting role and may have shared sensitive political information with foreign intelligence officers, marking potentially the most serious German security breach since the Cold War.

Both men were arrested at their homes on Tuesday. Hanning has denied the allegations. The case echoes the 1974 Guillaume affair, when a top aide to Chancellor Willy Brandt was exposed as a long-term Stasi spy, an incident that ended Brandt's chancellorship.