Germany opens inquiry into claims NSA tapped Angela Merkel's phone

Prosecutor announces inquiry but says he will not investigate claims of wider US surveillance against German citizens

theguardian.com,  AFP, Wednesday 4 June 2014

Link to video: Investigation into Angela Merkel phone-hacking allegations launched

Germany's federal prosecutor has opened an investigation over alleged snooping by the US National Security Agency (NSA) on Angela Merkel's mobile phone.

"I informed parliament's legal affairs committee that I have started a preliminary investigation over tapping of a mobile phone of the chancellor," Harald Range said.

The long-anticipated inquiry, which follows allegations last year that US spies had eavesdropped on the German chancellor's mobile in the past, is against unnamed persons, Range said after addressing the committee.

However, he said he had decided against opening an investigation into claims of wider NSA surveillance against German citizens.

The move may again strain Berlin's ties with Washington, which both countries' leaders have been at pains to restore following the reports of sweeping NSA spying on internet and phone communications overseas, described by Merkel as "grave".

Data-sensitive Germans reacted with outrage to the accusations by the fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden amid sensitivity over mass state spying on citizens by the Stasi secret police in the former communist East Germany.

A parliamentary panel has been established to assess the extent of spying by the NSA and its partners on German citizens and politicians, and whether German intelligence aided its activities.

Recent reports that Range did not plan to go ahead with the wider probe had prompted anger from some politicians.

The US president, Barack Obama, sought to quell the international furore over the reports, announcing in January that he had halted spy taps on friendly world leaders and curtailed the reach of mass NSA phone surveillance.

In an interview with a German TV channel a day later he assured Merkel that he would not let intrusive surveillance harm their relationship, but said intelligence gathering on foreign governments would continue.