Germany launches probe into Merkel phone tapping

Germany has decided to launch a criminal investigation into the US eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The country’s Federal Prosecutor General Harald Range said during a closed session of the parliamentary Justice Committee on Wednesday that he has decided to undertake the probe.

“Extensive preliminary investigations have established that sufficient factual evidence exists that unknown members of US intelligence services spied on the mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel,” said the prosecutor’s office.

Reports on the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) tapping of Merkel’s phone emerged last year from documents released by former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden.

Further revelations by Snowden have shown that the NSA also eavesdropped on the phone of Merkel’s predecessor the Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The disclosures shocked Germans and sparked one of the most serious disputes between the two allies.

In June 2013, Snowden leaked top secret US government spying programs under which the NSA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are eavesdropping on millions of American and European phone records and the Internet data from major Internet companies such as Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Apple, and Microsoft.

The NSA scandal took even broader dimensions when Snowden revealed information about its espionage activities targeting “friendly” countries including other European countries such as France.

The revelations about the extent of Washington’s espionage program have angered its European allies and drawn worldwide criticisms. In late October, the disclosures also prompted Brazil and Germany to draft a United Nations General Assembly resolution aimed at restraining the NSA’s surveillance programs against other nations.