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German investigators are examining whether former intelligence chief August Hanning shared sensitive information with a man from China’s intelligence apparatus, news magazine Spiegel reported Thursday, citing several sources familiar with the case.
Hanning’s lawyer rejected the allegations.
“My client is being wrongly pursued,” Leon Kruse told Spiegel.
Kruse said Hanning had been in possession of confidential documents but denied that he had harmed Germany.
“What is incorrect, however, is the allegation that he passed on information contained in them to the detriment of the Federal Republic of Germany—let alone in exchange for payment,” he said, adding that further investigations would show that.
The federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe, which is investigating the 80-year-old on suspicion of treason, espionage and other offenses, declined to comment on the alleged China link.
Hanning led Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, from 1998 to 2005.
He was arrested Tuesday together with his former office director, identified as Manfred D.
Investigators say that after Hanning left the agency, Manfred D. supplied him for years with confidential BND documents.
By June 2022, he had delivered “nearly 2,000 documents” to Hanning, the federal prosecutor’s office said.
Prosecutors say Hanning used the documents in at least one case while preparing a security report as part of his private consulting work for a member of a foreign intelligence service.
They also say he was in intensive contact with another foreign intelligence official.
Prosecutors have not identified the countries allegedly involved.
German public broadcasters WDR and NDR reported earlier that the service in contact with Hanning was not Russian.
Spiegel claimed that the suspected foreign contact was Wang Jianzheng, a retired Chinese major general and diplomat with ties to Hanning.
Wang served at China’s mission in East Berlin from 1987 to 1990 and later returned to Germany, most recently as military attache until 2013.
He is regarded as one of Beijing’s leading experts on Germany.
Hanning made several visits to China after his retirement, Spiegel reported.
In 2017, Hanning and Wang apparently met at an official reception in the eastern Chinese city of Huaibei.
A city record says the talks covered cooperation and economic development and that the two jointly visited local companies.
The federal prosecutor’s office declined to say whether Hanning’s connection to Wang is part of the investigation.
Azerbaijan has separately protested to Germany over a media report linking Baku to the espionage investigation involving Hanning, Azerbaijani media reported Wednesday.
The protest was conveyed to the German chancellor’s office and Foreign Ministry through diplomatic and intelligence channels, the APA news agency said, citing diplomatic sources.
Der Spiegel, citing unnamed sources, reported that Hanning had prepared an analysis for an Azerbaijani intelligence operative using classified material.
German prosecutors have not identified the foreign intelligence services allegedly involved.
Hanning’s former chief of staff, Manfred D., was also detained.
Prosecutors allege that Manfred D. supplied Hanning with about 2,000 documents, many of them classified, which Hanning used in his private consulting work.
Azerbaijan’s media regulator separately rejected reports linking the country to the case as “disinformation.”
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