Germany to probe NSA surveillance of Merkel’s phone

BERLIN 

Germany’s chief prosecutor has opened an investigation into the alleged surveillance of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone by the US' National Security Agency.

The announcement on Wednesday came after the Federal Prosecutor’s office received about 2,000 criminal complaints against US and British intelligence organizations over alleged mass surveillance in the wake of US whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations last year.

"I have informed the parliamentary committee that I have launched a formal investigation against unknown suspects due to intelligence activity in relation to the surveillance of one of the mobile phones of the Chancellor,” said Germany's federal prosecutor Harald Range, after briefing the Federal Parliament’s legal committee.

The Federal Prosecutor’s office said in a press statement that preliminary investigations had led to “sufficient factual indications” showing that “unknown members of a US intelligence service” had tapped Merkel’s phone. 

A formal investigation into the allegations was launched on 3 June under the German Criminal Code’s Section 99, which prohibits “activity as an agent for an intelligence service”, the statement added.

The Federal Prosecutor’s office also said no decision had yet been made on whether to open a formal probe into allegations of massive surveillance targeting people in Germany by US and British intelligence organizations, as preliminary investigations had not revealed sufficient factual evidence.

A preliminary investigation into the claims was continuing, the statement noted.

Snowden claimed in 2013 that the NSA had collected about half a billion communications connections each month from Germany.

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