August Hanning was arrested on Tuesday and is suspected of attempting to pass classified information to foreign intelligence services.
He is “strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, disclosing state secrets, attempted treason and espionage,” the authority said in a press release.
He is suspected of receiving secret information from his former chief of staff several years after leaving the post, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing sources.
A former close associate of Hanning has also been arrested, according to prosecutors. It is not clear who the two men are suspected of spying for.
Hanning led the BND from 1998 to 2005 and was a state secretary in the German Interior Ministry until the end of 2009.
