MOSCOW (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko — Germany faced a high-profile espionage scandal in April, when local media revealed that the country's intelligence agency, BND, had provided technical assistance to the US National Security Agency in spying on targets inside the country and throughout the European Union, including on top political figures and corporations.
In early July, WikiLeaks published documents that revealed the United States spied on three German chancellors — Helmut Kohl, Gerhard Schroeder and Angela Merkel, as well as a number of other federal government members beginning at least in the 1990s.
"On the one side the general attorney did not want to follow the accusations concerning the Americans, and on the other side he was the first one who started it when it’s against his own government," Josef Haslinger stated.
Such a move raises concern about the true motives and practices of the authorities, he added.
"This doesn’t look very well. I think the general attorney of the state [Germany's Attorney General Harald Range] is now in a big trouble," Haslinger emphasized.
Last week, German authorities launched a probe into the activity of an investigative blog Netzpolitik.org. Markus Beckedahl and Andre Meister, journalists writing for the blog, faced treason allegations after they quoted secret documents from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, detailing plans to extend illegal online surveillance practices.
Following protests in support of the journalists, Germany’s Chief Federal Prosecutor Harald Range halted the probe.
