Ex-spy chief is arrested in Germany on suspicion of trading state secrets and treason

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August Hanning, the former president of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), appears as a witness before the NSA investigative committee at the German parliament Bundestag in Berlin on Oct. 1, 2015. Michael Kappeler/DPA via AP hide caption

BERLIN — A former head of Germany 's foreign intelligence service was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion that he had passed state secrets to a foreign intelligence service, the federal prosecutor's office said.

August Hanning, who led the Federal Intelligence Service, known by its German acronym BND, from 1998 to 2005, is "strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets, attempted treason, and espionage," the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Hanning, 80, was arrested in Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen in southern Germany. A former aide, identified as Manfred D., was also arrested Tuesday in Steinfurt in western Germany and has been charged with aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage.

The statement did not reveal who the two men were suspected of spying for.

The prosecutor's office said Manfred D. worked as Hanning's chief of staff and later served as chief of staff for several subsequent BND presidents from 2012 until 2026.

"In his role, he had access to confidential information," the prosecutor's office said.

Both suspects are believed to have agreed in 2010 to have Manfred D. continuously transmit valuable intelligence from the BND to Hanning in exchange for payment, the statement said.

"The current findings suggest that, over the years, Manfred D. provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many of which contained classified information to be used exclusively by the federal intelligence service for internal purposes, particularly for executive intelligence briefings," the statement said.

Hanning used the information in private consulting work, and on one occasion "used classified intelligence provided by Manfred D. to draft an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service."

Manfred D., who in line with German privacy rules cannot be identified by his full name, provided Hanning with classified information for several years, the statement said, but it was not immediately clear if the collaboration continued until their arrests on Tuesday.