German steakhouse heiress Christina Blockfaces up to 10 years in prison for allegedly orchestrating an international kidnapping plot involving former Israeli intelligence operatives and German spy chiefs to seize her own children from her ex-husband during New Year's celebrations in Denmark.
What was once a private legal dispute, is now spilling into Germany's tabloid media despite the country's stringent privacy regulations, has now escalated to a courtroom in Hamburg.
Under a blaze of media scrutiny, Block stands trial in the regional court of the northern port city, facing charges of aggravated child abduction, severe physical assault, and illegal detention. The central accusation is that she engaged a global security company to conduct a violent, transnational kidnapping of her two youngest children. A guilty verdict could lead to a decade behind bars.
Former sports broadcaster Gerhard Delling, a prominent figure in German soccer commentary and Block's partner since 2021, is standing on trial along with her, accused of assisting in the alleged kidnapping plot.
The trial has unfolded in a heavily fortified courtroom, typically used for terrorism cases, given the involvement of alleged former Israeli intelligence operatives.
"Be quiet or we will kill you"
The indictment alleges that Block hired a team to attack her ex-husband, Stephan Hensel, and their two youngest children, aged 10 and 13 at the time, during a New Year's 2023-24 fireworks event at Hensel's residence in southern Denmark, close to Germany's border. The assailants reportedly struck Hensel, then forcibly took his son and daughter through a forest, across a stream, and into a vehicle.
The children were bound, their mouths sealed with tape, and allegedly threatened with death, with one captor stating, "Be quiet, or we will kill you." Danish authorities, using tracker dogs and a tracking device placed on one child by the father, swiftly pursued the kidnappers. The children were brought to a farmhouse in Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany, and kept in a caravan until Block collected them on January 2, 2024, returning them to her Hamburg villa. Days later, they were turned over to police and sent back to Denmark.
August Hanning, former chief of Germany's BND intelligence agency, is among the alleged co-conspirators, accused by prosecutors of linking Block with the Israeli espionage firm thought to have executed the kidnapping. Hanning, who has spoken out in Block's defense, denies any role in the operation.
Block asserted that the security firm operated on its own initiative, funded by her mother, who passed away approximately nine months prior to the incident. The operation, reportedly costing hundreds of thousands of euros, was meticulously planned over months.
