Opposition in NSA spy scandal files constitutional complaint

Legal representative for the opposition, Wolfgang Ewer, said in Berlin on Thursday that he had personally delivered the complaint to Karlsruhe court president Andreas Voßkuhle a day earlier.

The unusual delivery was necessary due to the secret nature of its contents.

Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) is accused of helping the US to spy on a number of European companies and politicians for several years, by providing the US' National Security Agency (NSA) with the list of "selectors," which includes telephone numbers and IP addresses.

Thousands of "selectors" have been removed from the published list, however, as they were deemed to be in violation of German interest.

The aim of the complaint issued on Thurday is to make the German government publish the unedited list of "selectors," currently kept under lock and key by the committee.

Administrative judge Kurt Graulich and appointed "person of trust" for the NSA Committee is currently examining the list - a task which was entrusted to him by the coalition government.

Tensions within the coalition

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under increasing pressure to divulge the so-called "selectors," in an affair which has strained relations between her conservatives (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SDP) - the junior coalition partner in the current federal government.

Germany's left party and the Greens insist that the government should present the document to the investigating committee.

"This is a completely unacceptable process," said Green Party parliamentary chairwoman Britta Haßelmann, adding that the government's refusal to present the list was a "far-reaching infringement on parliamentary rights."

Revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about US espionage in Germany caused outrage when they surfaced, and this has now been compounded by allegations that German intelligence was not only aware, but also complicit in the affair.

ksb/ls (AFP, dpa)