Germany Sacks Top Prosecutor in Row Over Treason Inquiry
By REUTERS

BERLIN — Germany’s government sacked the top public prosecutor on Tuesday after he accused the justice ministry of interfering in a widely criticised treason investigation against a news website.

Prosecutor Harald Range last week suspended the investigation into netzpolitik.org while he awaited an independent expert opinion on whether the website had revealed state secrets by publishing plans to step up state surveillance of online communications.

Privacy is an especially sensitive issue in Germany after the extensive surveillance by Communist East Germany’s Stasi secret police and by the Gestapo in the Nazi era.

Justice Minister Heiko Maas said last week that it was important to defend the independence of the press, adding he doubted whether the publication of the documents would endanger Germany.

In a rare clash between the state and judiciary, Maas said on Tuesday he no longer trusted Range after his accusations of political interference and his decision to go public.

“The remarks and the chosen course of action by the federal prosecutor today are not comprehensible and give the public a false impression,” the minister told a news conference in Berlin.

“Therefore I decided in agreement with the chancellery that I will ask the president to retire (the prosecutor),” Maas said, adding that he would name Munich’s chief public prosecutor, Peter Frank, as successor.

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office declined to comment.

Earlier on Tuesday, Range told journalists in the southwestern town of Karlsruhe: “Influencing investigations because the result they might have doesn’t seem politically opportune is an intolerable intervention in the independence of the judiciary.”

Maas said both sides had agreed on Friday that the justice ministry would assess whether the publication amounted to revealing state secrets and that Range’s idea of an independent expert opinion should be dropped.

The minister noted that at this point Range had not told him yet that the judicial expert was leaning towards the opinion that the publication of the internal documents was a case of treason.

Netzpolitik acknowledged in its reports that excerpts it had cited were either intended to be dealt with by a closed parliamentary committee or were from a restricted official document.

A spokeswoman for Angela Merkel said on Monday that the justice minister had the chancellor’s full support. The interior ministry also said it had doubts about the accusation of treason.

維護新聞自由 德國開除總檢察長

德國司法部長馬斯4日宣布開除德國聯邦總檢察長蘭格。矢言維護新聞自由的司法部，擊敗了以泄漏國家機密為由而以「叛國」嫌疑調查網路網站的聯邦檢方。

「網路政治」網站（Netzpolitik）刊登匿名消息人士提供的文件，顯示德國國內安全最高機關「聯邦憲法保護局」計畫擴大監控線上通訊，蘭格發動聯邦檢方調查網站兩位記者，成為德國半世紀多以來第一件以「叛國」罪名調查媒體的事件。

消息上周四走漏，立即引起記者、部落格、政壇抗議潮，批評當局企圖叫記者噤聲。高層官員強調德國矢志保障新聞自由，馬斯獲得總理梅克爾支持，迅速和調查案劃清界線，質疑蘭格，認為「網路政治」所刊文件並不構成「國家機密」。

蘭格4日暴衝，直挑他的頂頭上司馬斯，指控司法部下令他收回一位獨立專家的報告，那份報告判定兩位記者從某消息人士拿到的文件是「國家機密」。刊登國家機密是「叛國」罪前提之一。

蘭格說，「以報告的可能結果在政治上時機不宜，而來影響調查，對司法獨立是不可容忍的侵犯」。

數小時後，馬斯舉行記者會反駁，表示收回專家報告是他和蘭格上周五談好的決定。他說：「聯邦檢察長今天的說法及行事令人難以理解，而且給大眾一個錯誤印象。」

馬斯表示，他對蘭格已無信心，「因此我決定，在與總理府立場一致之下，呈請總統讓檢察長退休」。梅克爾發言人3日曾說，總理「充分支持司法部長」。關於以「叛國」罪名調查兩名記者，內政部也曾表示懷疑。

隱私權在德國是特別敏感的問題。德國先有納粹控制全民的「蓋世太保」，後有東德秘密警察對全民無孔不入的監控，今天對言論自由和資訊保障的問題特別在意。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/08/04/world/europe/04reuters-germany-prosecutor.html

2015-08-05．聯合晚報．A6．國際焦點．編譯彭淮棟