[JURIST] Harald Range [professional profile], Germany’s top prosecutor, was dismissed from his duties on Tuesday by Justice Minister Heiko Maas [official website] after Range accused the German government of obstructing his investigation against two German journalists. Range was interested in an investigation against the two journalists from the website Netzpolitik.org, which had reported on the expansion of surveillance of online communication within Germany’s domestic spy agency. Range received information from an independent expert explaining that the information the journalists received from an unknown source was legitimate and also a “state secret.” In an effort to prevent anymore embarrassment to the German government, Range, who is 67, was dismissed [Deutsche Welle report], despite his intentions to retire next year and be succeeded by Munich federal prosecutor Peter Frank. The treason probe became public news last week following a criminal complaint filed by the spy agency which also targeted the unknown source who dispersed the leaked documents.

Surveillance has been a worldwide topic of discussion particularly after Edward Snowden [CNN backgrounder] leaked top-secret [JURIST report] NSA documents last year. In July 2014 the German government summoned [JURIST report] the US ambassador John B. Emerson [official website] after the arrest of a man who is claimed to be a US spy working surveillance throughout the country. In January 2014 the PCLOB [official website] found [JURIST report] that the NSA’s phone surveillance program was illegal. Also last year the ACLU [official website] in conjunction with the New York Civil Liberties Union [advocacy website] filed suit [JURIST report] against the NSA challenging its phone data collection. Countries like Brazil and Germany have passed legislation [JURIST report] aimed at eliminating privacy invasions due to excessive surveillance programs and data collection.