Berlin – German news magazine Der Spiegel has filed charges and demanded an investigation into alleged spying by the US intelligence community and a breach of telecommunications privacy, the magazine and Germany‘s federal prosecutor confirmed Friday.
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“We are calling on the attorney general to investigate who the culprits are,” deputy editor-in-chief Alfred Weinzierl told dpa.
The charges stem from a secret chancellery memo that details an event in 2011, when CIA heads cautioned the office‘s intelligence services coordinator Guenter Heiss of alleged Spiegel contacts in the German government.
According to the memo, Heiss‘ deputy was suspected of passing information to the magazine. He was transferred shortly thereafter.
No legal consequences came of the suspicion. The event is currently being scrutinized by the German parliament‘s investigative committee on spying.