Trial of German steakhouse heiress that sparked a huge spy scandal

It is a trial that has gripped Germany, with a wealthy heiress in the dock for months and a case that triggered the country's biggest espionage scandal in recent history.

Christina Block, heir to a popular chain of steakhouses, is accused of ordering an Israeli security firm to carry out the violent abduction of her children from Denmark, following a bitter custody battle with her former husband.

There are allegedly connections with at least two former secret agents, from Germany and Israel.

In the latest twist, investigators in the case stumbled across evidence that has led to Germany's former intelligence chief, August Hanning, being arrested this month for treason and espionage.

Hanning's arrest stunned the intelligence community. Although his case has nothing to do with the Hamburg trial, he has denied allegations of involvement in an earlier attempted abduction of the children.

There was enormous media interest in Germany when Christina Block and six others went on trial in a high-security courtroom in Hamburg in July last year.

Block House restaurants, specialising in steak and baked potatoes, are a feature of many German towns. Their success over the past half century has helped make Christina Block's father Eugen a multimillionaire.

Prosecutors allege that she and a family lawyer, Andreas Costard, organised the forcible abduction of two of her children, who were staying with her former husband, Stephan Hensel, at his home in Denmark.

They say the operation was carried out by a 36-year-old Israeli citizen named only as Jonathan G and five others.

The abduction took place during the New Year celebrations of 2023-24, as the two children and their father were watching a firework display, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors say several men ambushed and beat up Stephan Hensel, and dragged the boy and the girl, then 10 and 13 years old, into a car.

On the approach to the border with Germany, they are alleged to have changed vehicles, taped up the children's mouths and tied the girl's hands.

The group are then said to have travelled on to Baden-Württemberg in a campervan. Prosecutors say the children were held there against their will until their mother arrived to pick them up on 2 January 2024 and took them to her home in Hamburg.

Christina Block, Andreas Costard and Jonathan G are charged with the abduction of minors, grievous bodily harm and unlawful detention.

Block's partner, a former TV sports presenter called Gerhard Delling, and three others are charged with aiding and abetting.

All of them deny wrongdoing, except for Jonathan G, who has admitted his involvement. However, he told the court he thought he was taking part in a rescue operation.

The trial comes after years of legal battles between Christina Block and her former husband, Stephan Hensel, over who had the right to look after the children.

Immediately after their separation, all four children lived with their mother in Hamburg. Hensel, who remarried, later moved to Denmark, where they regularly visited him.

In 2021, the two youngest children went to visit their father in Denmark, but then were not brought back to Hamburg as agreed.

A court in Hamburg ruled that Christina had custody and that the children should be returned. However, in February 2023, a Danish court ruled that, although the boy and the girl had been brought to Denmark unlawfully, they could not be taken back.

In May 2023, Hensel was charged with the abduction of minors, in a case which is still pending.

He has accused Christina of being violent with the children, charges she denies. She told the court Hensel wanted to take revenge on her.

She also denied knowing anything about plans for the abduction of the children from Denmark. Her defence argues that the Israeli security team had acted on its own initiative.

She told the court it was "a catastrophe" and that she had never wanted anything like that.

The head of the Israeli security team, David Barkay, who is not on trial but faces future legal proceedings, told the court that Christina Block and Costard had known about the planned repatriation operation.

Barkay, who was described by another witness as a former agent with Mossad, the Israeli secret service, said he had not shared all the details because he "didn't trust them."

The alleged connection with Germany's former spy chief, August Hanning, relates to accusations of an earlier attempt to abduct the children and bring them back from Denmark in 2022.

Prosecutors have said Hanning was responsible for arranging security staff sent to Denmark with Christina Block. His lawyer denies the accusations. Hanning has not been charged over the current Block court case.

However, while investigators were searching his home, they came across evidence to suggest Hanning was involved in buying some 2,000 documents from his former chief of staff and then passing on state secrets to foreign powers.

Which foreign power and who he is alleged to have given the secrets to is unspecified, but it has prompted widespread speculation.

Now 80, Hanning is in custody charged with treasonous espionage. His lawyer says he is being "unjustly persecuted" and that the charges are "unfounded".

Meanwhile the trial against Christina Block is currently on hold for two weeks - one of numerous delays and extensions over the course of the past 15 months.

The latest delay is because a witness, Stephan Hensel's new wife, failed to appear in court.