Azerbaijan denies report of link to German spy scandal

Azerbaijan on ​Wednesday denied a report that ​former German intelligence ‌chief August ​Hanning, accused of buying secret documents and using them in an ‌analysis for a foreign spy service, had been in contact with an agent from Azerbaijan. The country's Media and Broadcasting ‌Council said in a statement that allegations of an ‌Azerbaijani connection to the case, first reported by Der Spiegel, were unfounded.

"The malicious intent of the forces behind this disinformation operation ⁠is to ​damage Azerbaijan-Germany relations," ⁠the council said. Hanning, the former head of the BND foreign ⁠intelligence service, was detained on Tuesday on suspicion of attempted treason ​and espionage in one of Germany's biggest security scandals ⁠since the Cold War.

Prosecutors said he paid to receive ⁠classified ​documents from a BND office manager and used them to prepare an analysis for an officer of ⁠an unnamed foreign intelligence service. Germany's federal prosecutor's office declined to ⁠comment on ⁠the Spiegel report. Hanning did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.