Three alleged former Mossad agents have been connected with an ugly custody battle turned kidnapping between a German restaurant heiress and her former husband over their two youngest children, KAN News reported on Sunday.
Christina Block, the heiress of the German restaurant chain Block House, has been accused of having contracted a global security agency to execute a violent, cross-border kidnapping of her two youngest children.
If Block is found guilty, which she argues she is not, she stands to serve up to 10 years in prison. Her partner, sports broadcaster Gerhard Delling, is accused of aiding and abetting her.
Former Mossad Agent Tal Sasson has reportedly been indicted in the case, and prosecutors are seeking the arrest of Israeli nationals David Ram Barkai and Keren Tenenbaum. The latter fled Germany.
August Hanning, the former head of Germany’s BND service, was also allegedly involved in the case. Prosecutors argued that he connected Block to former Israeli intelligence officers.
What happened in the case?
Block allegedly contacted a group, named by KAN News as Cyber Cupula Operations, to ambush her ex-husband, Stephan Hensel, and their two youngest children at a fireworks show in southern Denmark.
The operatives reportedly knocked Hensel down, and dragged the children, then 10 and 13, into a forest and then into a car.
The children were allegedly threatened with death, the Guardian reported.
One suspect reportedly told the children, “Be quiet, otherwise we’ll kill you.”
The children were then taken to southern Germany, where they were held in a mobile home until their mother picked them up. They were later handed over to German police, who handed the children over to Dutch authorities.
The Guardian reported that Block has also been accused of contracting the same firm to plant false child sexual abuse images on Hensel in an attempt to frame him as a child molester.
Block’s lawyers are expected to argue that she was desperate to see her children, as she was given full custody of the two by a German court, according to her lawyers.
Hensel challenged the German ruling and wrongfully detained the children after they went to visit him in 2021.
The Guardian reported that Danish police have refused to acknowledge the German custody order. Hensel has since gotten full custody of the children from a Danish court, which Block has not been able to overturn.
German media reported that Danish police have said that the two children want to cease all contact with their mother.
Hensel and the two children now live in Denmark at a secret address and have changed their names.
Block has claimed that Cyber Cupula Operations worked on their own and that the operation was financed by her mother, who died almost a year before the operation.
Block and Delling have denied the charges against them.