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1title: Federal Prosecutor General protracts investigations regarding NSA spying
2date: 2015-07-11 18:55:00
3updated: 2015-07-14 07:51:19
4author: 46halbe
5tags: update, pressemitteilung
6
7After a long period of silence, the Federal Prosecutor General responded to the criminal charges brought by several civil rights groups against the German Federal Government. He is however stalling an investigation into the charge, which concerns the mass surveillance of citizens by secret services. Here, we publish the response. [0]
8
9<!-- TEASER_END -->
10
11In response to increased pressure from our lawyers, Federal Prosecutor
12General Harald Range has issued a letter in reply to the criminal
13charges brought by the International League for Human Rights (ILMR), the
14Chaos Computer Club (CCC), Digitalcourage e. V., and four individuals
15from February 3rd, 2014. The charge focuses on illegal espionage as well
16as aiding thereof, the violation of privacy, and obstruction of justice
17through implicit consent and cooperation. \[1\]
18
19Almost a year and a half after the criminal complaint, the Federal
20Prosecutor General now reacts for the first time with a letter, in which
21he states why he will not start an official investigation at this point
22in time, but that evidence will be examined further. A final decision on
23initiating an investigation has not yet been made.
24
25The Federal Prosecutor General justifies his continuing inactivity with
26a supposed lack of sufficient and actual evidence of felony offences. He
27writes at great lengths about lacking even an approach for an
28investigation of the wire-tapping of Chancellor Merkel’s mobile phone.
29In the meantime, Wikileaks has published further evidence of sweeping
30espionage by intelligence agencies. \[2\], \[5\] Range claims not to be
31able to get access to the original documents that Edward Snowden handed
32over to the media. The evidence of total surveillance of the public,
33laid out in detail in our criminal complaint and further writings, was
34only worth two meager paragraphs to him.
35
36CCC spokesperson Falk Garbsch says: „Apparently, everyone reading a
37newspaper knows more about the surveillance of the public and the
38government than the Federal Prosecutor General. His refusal to work is a
39purely political failure. Blatant facts and evidence are being ignored.“
40
41In the numerous press reports and Snowden papers, Range does not see the
42makings of argumentation that would stand up in court. But by failing to
43start an official investigation, he actually prevents his office from
44assessing and reviewing existing information and acquiring the evidence
45necessary for appropriate litigation.
46
47The NGOs now explicitly demand that the Federal Prosecutor General meets
48his responsibility as chief prosecutor and immediately starts an
49official investigation, acquires required evidence, and especially hears
50Edward Snowden as a witness.
51
52Regarding the Federal Prosecutor General’s delay of the investigation,
53the President of the ILMR, Fanny-Michaela Reisin, stated: „For years,
54the League has been raising the issue that the intelligence services are
55incompatible with democracy and the rule of law. The Chancellor and her
56government are, with respect to secret agreements, blatantly and quite
57publicly suspending applicable constitutional law and the separation of
58powers. It is equally unacceptable that the Federal Prosecutor General
59refuses to begin urgently needed investigations following the Snowden
60revelations. This is reminiscent of the behaviour of the government
61during the Weimar republic, which paved the way for totalitarianism.“
62
63**Links**:
64
65- \[0\] Reply of the Federal Prosecutor General to the criminal
66 complaint from February 3rd, 2014 (German):
67 <https://ccc.de/system/uploads/190/original/GBA-redacted.pdf>
68- \[1\] Chaos Computer Club files criminal complaint against the
69 German Government: <https://ccc.de/en/updates/2014/complaint>
70- \[2\] All The Chancellor’s Men:
71 <https://www.wikileaks.org/nsa-germany/selectors.html>
72- \[3\] Criminal complaint against mass surveillance: We won’t back
73 down! <https://ccc.de/en/updates/2015/gba3>
74- \[4\] New proof for surveillance: CCC extends legal complaints
75 against intelligence services and German government:
76 <https://ccc.de/en/updates/2014/tor-gba>
77- \[5\] [German prosecutors launch investigation of spying
78 charges](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/03/us-germany-spying-nsa-idUSKBN0NO0G820150503),
79 May 2015
80
81**Background**:\
82On February 3rd, 2014 the International League of Human Rights (ILMR),
83Chaos Computer Club (CCC) and Digitalcourage filed a complaint against
84the US, British, and German intelligence agencies and their directors,
85against the presidents of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the
86Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (VfS), and the
87Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD), and against the Federal
88Minister of the Interior, the Chancellor, and all others responsible.
89Six more NGOs and 1,848 individuals have since joined in the complaint.
90
91The complaint was broadened on June 4th, 2014 with an additional writing
92to the Federal Prosecutor General based upon new publications regarding
93ongoing NSA operations that were detected and saved on a CCC server in
94the anonymization network Tor. Following further publications regarding
95the Federal Prosecutor General’s continuing failure to act, the NGOs
96again broadened their complaint on June 6th of this year, the second
97anniversary of the Snowden revelations.\
98\
99For further information regarding the lawsuit, please contact attorneys
100H.-Eberhard Schultz and Claus Förster at +49 30 43725026 (outside of
101business hours at +49 172 4203768).