August Hanning, the former head of Germany's foreign intelligence service, has been placed in pre-trial detention after prosecutors accused him of obtaining around 2,000 confidential BND documents and using some of the material in work involving foreign intelligence services.
Hanning, 80, led the Federal Intelligence Service, known as the BND, from 1998 to 2005 before serving as a state secretary at Germany's Interior Ministry until 2009. He later worked as a private security consultant.
