Photo Gallery Leaky Berlin
Chancellor Angela Merkel together with Chief of Staff Peter Altmaier. Earlier this year, Altmaier threatened legal action after information from the parliament's NSA investigative committee found its way into the public. Now, the government is planning to file a criminal complaint against unknown persons, triggering an investigation by public prosecutors.
The NSA hearings in parliament have been particularly hampered by government secrecy, with documents relating to NSA activities in Germany heavily redacted before they can be presented as evidence to the committee.
Klaus Dieter-Fritsche is intelligence coordinator in Merkel's Chancellery. He is the one that recently informed lawmakers that a complaint was to be filed with public prosecutors.
Concern in Berlin was heightened by stories reported in SPIEGEL and in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In October, SPIEGEL reported that German intelligence officials believed that pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine had been responsible for the shooting down of MH17.
