What changed
Christina Block, heir to Germany’s Block House steakhouse chain, is on trial in Hamburg with six others over the alleged abduction of two children from Denmark during New Year celebrations in 2023-24.
The case gained a new espionage dimension this month when former German intelligence chief August Hanning was arrested on treason and espionage allegations. His case is separate from the Hamburg trial, and there is no established evidence that he was involved in the alleged abduction.
Why it matters
The trial sits at the collision point of a bitter custody dispute, private security work and Germany’s intelligence establishment.
Prosecutors allege that Block and family lawyer Andreas Costard arranged for Israeli security contractor Jonathan G and five others to seize the children, then aged 10 and 13, after attacking their father, Stephan Hensel, during a fireworks display in Denmark. They say the children were taken across the border, held in Baden-Württemberg and collected by Block in Hamburg on 2 January 2024.
Block, Costard and Jonathan G face charges including abduction of minors, grievous bodily harm and unlawful detention. Block and the other defendants deny wrongdoing. Jonathan G admits taking part but says he believed it was a rescue operation.
The custody history helps explain why the legal stakes are so high. A Hamburg court had ruled that Block held custody and that the children should return from Denmark. But in February 2023, a Danish court found that they had been taken to Denmark unlawfully while still ruling that they could not be returned to Germany. Hensel later faced his own pending charge of abducting minors, which he denies.
The Hanning arrest now gives the case a second centre of gravity. It does not change the charges in Hamburg, but it links investigators’ work there to an alleged espionage offence involving one of Germany’s former intelligence chiefs. The prosecution’s claims about the children’s abduction still have to be tested in court.
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