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Hollande demands 'all info' on German spying

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Hollande demands 'all info' on German spying
Photo: AFP

French President François Hollande has demanded "all the information" on the reported spying by German intelligence services on his French foreign minister.

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Hollande's insistence came a day after allegations that Germany's foreign intelligence service spied on targets including French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, the FBI and the UN children's fund.

"We ask that all the information be given to us," Hollande said on the sidelines of a migration summit in Malta.

"These kind of practices should not go on between allies.

"I know that the chancellery will do everything it can to explain the circumstances to us in detail."

Hollande said he had been assured that such spying "had completely stopped" but wanted to see "see the proof".

The claims on Berlin public radio that the BND spy service had listened in on Fabius fuels an ongoing debate in Germany about state surveillance which was triggered by revelations from fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

The reports are awkward for Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose office oversees Germany's intelligence activities, who in 2013 angrily told Washington that "spying among friends isn't on" after reports the US National Security Agency (NSA) had bugged her cellphone.

The latest report, by Berlin public radio, adds to the list of targets the BND has allegedly spied on, citing the BND's "selectors" - phone numbers, email and IP addresses - for surveillance, which has been the subject of an investigation by a parliamentary oversight panel.

According to RBB Inforadio, which did not name its sources, the service has spied on Fabius, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United Nations bodies UNICEF and the World Health Organization.

Also on the list were "many European and American companies, including weapons makers such as Lockheed of the United States," said the report.

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