The dismissal of Federal Prosecutor Harald Range was announced Tuesday in Berlin at a hastily called news conference at which Justice Minister Heiko Maas said he no longer trusts Range. Opposition parties and some members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition also had called for Range to step down.
Range launched the probe earlier this year, after two bloggers at netzpolitik.com published documents with details of government plans to expand domestic spying. The plans also called for a special government spy unit to monitor social media for evidence of terrorist links.
The blogger investigation, described in German media as the first such probe in more than 50 years, was built on suspicion the reporters had revealed state secrets. It drew harsh official criticism as recently as Friday, when the justice minister voiced doubts that the bloggers intended to harm Germany with their reports.
A spokeswoman for German Chancellor Merkel, speaking Monday, said Justice Minister Maas retains the full support of the German leader.
Range temporarily suspended the probe late last week while he awaited an independent expert opinion on whether the published documents contained state secrets.
But hundreds of probe critics nonetheless launched weekend street protests in Berlin, while newspaper headlines referred to the probe as an "Attack of Freedom" and "....An Intimidation Campaign."
Range said he opened the probe after criminal complaints were filed by the German domestic intelligence service, known as the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. He said a subsequent review of the complaints showed evidence of possible criminal conduct by the bloggers.
voanews.com
4/8/15
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German prosecutor sacked over Netzpolitik treason probe...
ReplyDeleteGermany's justice minister has sacked the country's top prosecutor, who had accused the government of interfering with a treason investigation.
Heiko Maas said he no longer had confidence in Harald Range, dismissing his statements as "incomprehensible".
Prosecutors are investigating whether the Netzpolitik website revealed state secrets in articles about plans to step up state surveillance.
News of the case sparked street protests last week over press freedom.
The outcry put the government on the back foot, with senior officials stressing that Germany was committed to press freedom and casting doubts over whether the articles constituted treason.
'Intolerable'
Earlier on Tuesday, in a rare public row between the German judiciary and the state, Mr Range said the government had asked him to drop an independent investigator from the inquiry, who concluded that one of the articles published did amount to a disclosure of a state secret.
The request, said Mr Range, amounted to "an intolerable encroachment on the independence of the judiciary".
He said that while the freedom of press was valuable it was not "limitless"..............http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33772316
Germany's acting chief public prosecutor Monday dropped a treason investigation against a news website and said the secrets it leaked had not threatened national security...
ReplyDeleteActing chief prosecutor Gerhard Altvater said documents published by blog Netzpolitik.org detailing plans to step up state surveillance of online communications did not constitute state secrets. All treason charges have therefore been dropped.
Altvater became acting chief prosecutor after his predecessor Harald Range was fired by Justice Minister Heiko Maas last week in a row that rocked Germany's political establishment.
Range had accused the justice ministry of meddling in the treason investigation.
Maas had previously expressed doubts over whether the publication of restricted documents belonging to the domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), had endangered Germany.
The treason investigation had been put on hold while an expert study looked into the articles published on Netzpolitik on Feb. 25 and April 15 this year.
The allegation of treason against journalists has prompted widespread outrage among press freedom advocates and lawyers.
Privacy is an especially sensitive issue in Germany after the extensive surveillance by Communist East Germany's Stasi secret police and by the Gestapo in the Nazi era.
The Netzpolitik case has echoes of the 1962 "Spiegel Affair," a Cold War-era scandal widely seen as a landmark in ensuring freedom of the media in postwar Germany.
Reuterd
dailystar.com.lb
10/8/15