Claims awkward for chancellor Angela Merkel who had told US spying on friends was not on after NSA bugging accusations

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Germany’s foreign intelligence service spied on targets including the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, the FBI and the UN Children’s Fund, a media report alleges.

The latest news report on the BND spy service will fuel a debate in Germany about state surveillance kicked off by the revelations of the US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The claims are awkward for the chancellor, Angela Merkel, whose office oversees Germany’s intelligence activities. She told Washington in 2013 that “spying among friends isn’t on” following reports that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had bugged her mobile phone.

The latest report, by Berlin public radio, adds to the list of targets the BND has allegedly spied on. According to RBB Inforadio, which did not name its sources, the service spied on Fabius, the international court of justice in The Hague, the US FBI and the United Nations bodies Unicef and the World Health Organisation.

The report also claims the service monitored Hansjörg Haber, a German citizen who from 2008 to 2011 was head of the EU’s observer mission in Georgia and then a senior diplomat in Brussels. He is now head of the EU’s mission in Turkey and married to a state secretary in the interior ministry.

German citizens are protected by the country’s constitution and not allowed to be spied on. Privacy is a sensitive issue in Germany due to extensive surveillance by communist East Germany’s Stasi secret police and by the Nazi-era Gestapo.

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Also on the list, according to the RBB report, were “many European and American companies, including weapons makers such as Lockheed of the United States.”

German media have previously reported that the BND spied in cooperation with the NSA on the French presidency and foreign ministry, the European commission and other targets.

Asked about the latest allegations, the BND declined to comment. A government spokeswoman, Christiane Wirtz, questioned for about 20 minutes at a regular news conference, declined to comment directly on the report and said the oversight body worked “without discussing everything in public”.

Wirtz pledged a full investigation. “The duties of the BND do not include political reconnaissance work against partner countries,” she said.

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She added that the BND chief, Gerhard Schindler, still had the “full confidence of the German government”. The foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schäfer said German diplomats as a rule took precautions against snooping but did “not expect to be spied on by the BND”.

Snowden, who has lived in hiding in Russia since 2013, sparked the wider scandal when he released to journalists a trove of classified NSA documents revealing its sweeping global surveillance programme.

He faces US charges of espionage and theft of state property and could face jail for 30 years if tried and convicted.