A steakhouse heir, Israeli spies and a cross-border abduction: the custody battle gripping Germany

The Guardian

6 days ago

For over half a century Block House has ranked as one of the most recognised restaurant chains on the German high street – a collection of family-friendly steakhouses whose staples include the 'classic Block burger' and filet mignon.
But for months the Hamburg-based chain has been making headlines for an altogether different reason: a bitter and extraordinary custody battle between the heiress to the family business, Christina Block, and her ex-husband over the youngest two of their four children.
Among those accused of being involved are Israeli spies, as well as the former head of Germany's domestic intelligence service.
Now the row, which had until now largely played out in lawyers' offices and – unusually for Germany, where there are strict privacy laws – in the country's tabloid press, has reached a Hamburg court room.
Amid a blaze of publicity, Block is standing trial in the northern port city's regional court, accused of aggravated child abduction, grievous bodily harm, and unlawful detention. More precisely, and at the heart of the case, is the allegation that she contracted a global security firm to carry out the violent, cross-border kidnapping of her two youngest children. If convicted she faces up to 10 years behind bars.
In the dock with her is the former TV sports journalist Gerhard Delling, one of Germany's best-known football presenters and Block's romantic partner since 2021. He is accused of aiding and abetting her in the alleged abduction operation.
The case is being heard in a high-security court room usually reserved for terrorist trials, owing to the nature of those on trial, who include alleged former Israeli intelligence agents.
According to the charges, Block is alleged to have contracted a group to ambush her ex-husband, Stephan Hensel, and their two youngest children, then 10 and 13, while they were watching a fireworks display as part of new year 2023-24 celebrations at Hensel's home in southern Denmark, close to the German border.
The men allegedly knocked Hensel down, before dragging his son and daughter into a forest, across a stream and into a car. The children had their mouths taped and one was tied up. They were allegedly threatened with death, with one man telling them: 'Be quiet, otherwise we'll kill you.'
Danish police with sniffer dogs were quickly dispatched on the tail of the kidnappers, due to an alarm that had been attached to the boy by his father.
The children were taken to a farmhouse in Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany and held in a mobile home until Block arrived to pick them up on 2 January 2024 and took them back to her Hamburg villa. They were subsequently handed over to police and taken back to Denmark days later.
Both Block and Delling – who is accused of helping to organise the handover and the transport of the children to Hamburg – deny the charges.
Among several alleged accomplices are August Hanning, a former head of Germany's federal intelligence service, the BND, who according to prosecutors forged the initial contact between Block and the Israeli spy firm believed to have carried out the abduction. Hanning, who has spoken in public in defence of Block, denies any involvement in the abduction.
Block has said the security firm acted of its own accord, and that her mother, who died about nine months before the abduction, paid for the operation which is thought to have cost hundreds of thousands of euros and to have been months in the planning.
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Block is also accused of contracting the same firm to plant bogus child sexual abuse images on Hensel's property in an attempt to frame him as a child abuser. She also denies this charge.
Block's defence team is expected to argue on her behalf that she had become desperate after her children were wrongfully kept by their father in Denmark when he refused to return them as agreed after a pre-arranged visit in 2021.
Her lawyers say she had been granted sole custody of them, but Hensel had disregarded the German ruling. German police had taken the children back to Denmark after their abduction, at the request of Danish police. Danish authorities have refused to accept the German custody order. German media have widely reported that the same authorities have said the children do not want to have any contact with their mother.
Block's lawyers have said that she was looking forward to her day in court to be able to defend herself against claims by her ex-husband that she is a danger to her children.
Hensel has been granted custody of the two children by a Danish court, a decision that Block has tried but failed to get German courts to quash. They now live with their father in Denmark at a secret address. All are said to have changed their names.
The high-profile court case is expected to continue until Christmas and to hear from 141 witnesses and 22 experts. During the two days it has sat so far, Block and Hensel sat just metres apart but neither looked at nor spoke to each other.
Their daughter, now 14, has said she wants to speak in court. However, the case was adjourned earlier this week and is not due to resume until 25 July, after concerns were expressed over whether the children should be allowed to give evidence, in particular as their father faces separate legal proceedings for failing to abide by the German custody ruling and the evidence in both cases might clash.
The founder and patriarch of the Block House business, Eugen Block, 83, who wishes diners 'much joie de vivre and pleasure' in the menus at his eateries, has said he had not seen his grandchildren at the heart of the row for several years. The custody battle had caused him 'much heartache', he told the Hamburger Abendblatt.