It’s a story that could have come straight out a John le Carré thriller. The retired German spy chief accused of selling classified information amounting to thousands of secret documents; an alleged act of treason that continued for years and was only uncovered during a kidnapping investigation involving a steakhouse heiress and ex-Israeli spies.
August Hanning, head of the BND foreign intelligence agency for seven years until 2005, faces charges of treasonous espionage after the 80-year-old was arrested during a dawn raid on his home on Tuesday.
The focus now for investigators is his post-retirement consultancy, which he set up in 2010 – the same year he is accused of buying and using classified information.
It is Germany’s biggest espionage scandal as Irish Times Berlin correspondent Derek Scally reports.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.
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