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Azerbaijan on Wednesday denied reports linking it to the espionage and treason case against former German intelligence chief August Hanning and lodged a protest with Berlin, as a German court ordered Hanning to be kept in custody.
Azerbaijan's Media and Broadcasting Council said in a statement: "Information disseminated by a number of foreign media outlets linking Azerbaijan to the ongoing investigation concerning August Hanning is fake and is considered part of an intensive smear campaign."
German magazine Der Spiegel, citing unnamed sources, reported Tuesday that an Azerbaijani intelligence operative may have been the intended recipient of an analysis Hanning prepared using classified German government material.
The protest was conveyed to the German chancellor's office and foreign ministry through diplomatic and intelligence channels, Azerbaijan's APA news agency reported, citing diplomatic sources.
The council said the claims, first published by Der Spiegel and later carried by Reuters, AFP, France 24, The Times, The Telegraph and others, were unfounded.
Circulating such reports without an official source amounted to unacceptable information manipulation aimed at harming developing Azerbaijan-Germany relations, it said.
The council said it "strongly condemns" such campaigns and urged international media to adhere to principles of accuracy, impartiality and verification.
A German government spokesman declined to comment on the reported protest.
"Serious allegations have been raised, but so far they remain just that, allegations, and the task now is to analyse, investigate, and verify which of them are valid," spokesman Sebastian Hille said.
"Only then can the extent of the damage be assessed, rather than speculating," Hille said.
German prosecutors said Hanning had active contact with two foreign intelligence services but have not named them.
Officials familiar with the probe said there was no Russian dimension to the case, the Financial Times reported.
Hanning, who led the BND foreign intelligence service from 1998 to 2005, sat on the board of the German-Azerbaijan forum, a lobbying group promoting Baku's interests.
A court on Wednesday ordered the 80-year-old Hanning to remain in custody, along with his former chief of staff, identified only as Manfred D., who stayed at the agency until March 2026, AFP reported.
Prosecutors allege Manfred D. supplied Hanning with around 2,000 documents, many classified, which Hanning used in his private consulting work. In at least one instance, prosecutors said, Hanning used the secrets to prepare an analysis for a "foreign intelligence service," though it remains unclear whether it was ever sent.
German broadcaster ARD reported that the documents included highly sensitive reports on Iran's nuclear program and the Russian military.
Hanning's attorney, Leon Kruse, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) his client was being "unjustly prosecuted."
Kruse acknowledged that Hanning possessed "confidential documents" but denied that "he passed on information contained in the documents to the detriment of the Federal Republic of Germany, let alone in exchange for payment."
The investigation began after Hanning's name surfaced in the trial of Christina Block, heiress to the Block House steakhouse chain, who is accused of ordering the kidnapping of her two children from her former husband in Denmark on New Year's Eve 2023. Block denies knowledge of the plot.
Hanning allegedly connected Block with Israeli private intelligence firm Cyber Cupula, which Hamburg prosecutors say arranged the abduction, and was paid €100,000 ($111,900) for his services, the Hamburg court heard.
A raid on his property in September 2025 uncovered classified BND material.
Marc Henrichmann, chair of the parliamentary committee overseeing the BND, said existing rules on former spies' commercial work were not enough, as the Hanning spy case fuels debate over a new intelligence law.
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