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

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.

"In one instance, there is suspicion that Mr. Hanning used classified information to prepare an analysis for an employee of a foreign intelligence service," Ines Peterson, a spokesperson for the federal prosecutor's office, told German broadcaster RTL later on Tuesday.

"In another instance, he is alleged to have passed on information following an extensive exchange — also with an employee of another intelligence service."

Neither Peterson nor the earlier statement by the prosecutor's office revealed who exactly the two men were suspected of spying for or which foreign intelligence services they provided with classified information.

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.