Germany opens inquiry into Angela Merkel mobile spying

Seven months after the US promised not to spy on Angela Merkel’s mobile phone, Germany’s attorney general has opened a formal investigation into claims it did so in the past.

A year after the first revelations, by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the German inquiry opens a new chapter in the scandal surrounding intelligence he leaked before seeking asylum in Russia.

Last year federal attorney general Harald Range opened a preliminary inquiry into allegations of an NSA dragnet of German telecommunications. He has now concluded there is only sufficient evidence to open an investigation into the specific case of the German leader.

"There are firm facts that give cause to the suspicion of a possible spying on the mobile phone of the chancellor, Dr Angela Merkel, through unknown employees of the US secret service," said Mr Range yesterday.

The investigation comes under paragraph 99 of Germany’s criminal code, which has prison terms of up to 10 years for anyone who spies on the federal government. His office will begin gathering material from relevant authorities and will question witnesses. Mr Range said a request for information from Mr Snowden had been, to date, unanswered.

The attorney general said he was optimistic that the investigation into Dr Merkel’s phone would yield information useful for an investigation into the more general claim of telecommunications surveillance.

To date, Mr Range said, his office had not gathered material to open an investigation into claims that US and British intelligence services had tapped important junctions in Europe’s telecommunications infrastructure. Opposition Green Party deputy Hans-Christian Ströbele, a vocal NSA critic who met Mr Snowden in Moscow, criticised the investigation for a lack of ambition “in the main crime of large-scale espionage”.

In October Der Spiegel magazine, drawing on the Snowden leaks, found Dr Merkel's mobile number on a list of NSA targets dubbed "Nimrod". A furious Dr Merkel called President Obama. In the intervening months there has been heated speculation about whether an investigation would get off the ground, because of its political sensitivity and because it is unlikely that Washington will provide answers.

The US government will neither confirm or deny that the NSA spied on Dr Merkel’s phone, nor has it commented on allegations that its Berlin embassy has a telecommunications listening post on the roof.