Top German court scolds Berlin over spy secrecy (Roundup)

Jul 23, 2009, 15:08 GMT

   Karlsruhe, Germany - Germany's most senior court rebuked Chancellor Angela Merkel's government Thursday for withholding information from a parliamentary inquiry into possible errors by the BND intelligence service.

   Opposition parties seeking evidence that the BND may have colluded in the US detention of Islamists went to the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe in May 2007 to complain that ministers refused to answer questions.

   Judges agreed that withholding data without giving a specific reason was in breach of the German constitution.

   The 78-page ruling threw a spotlight on Germany's shadowy 'committee of presidents,' which comprises the most senior intelligence, police and civilian defence chiefs.

The judges said not even this panel could declare a matter classified without telling parliamentarians why, nor was the government able to bar disclosure of its dealings with foreign intelligence agencies.

The opposition parties, the Greens, the Free Democrats and the Left, acclaimed the ruling.

The opposition demanded that the commission of inquiry into the doings of the BND spy agency be re-opened, with ministers compelled to answer and all documents disclosed.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has been angered by deputies who disclose intelligence evidence to the media, although parliamentary scrutiny of spy agencies is supposed to be conducted in secret.

   At an inquiry last year into the detention of two Muslims from Germany at a US prison in Afghanistan, cabinet instructed ministers to refuse to answer some questions about BND operations.

   The inquiry found no conclusive evidence that German anti-terrorism agents assisted the 'extraordinary rendition' of prisoners by the US administration of president George W Bush.

   Judges said the fundamental right of Germany's parliament to oversight of the intelligence services was breached if the government withheld information without a detailed reason.

   It was not good enough for Berlin to say matters were secret for the public good or because the matters were part of a devolved responsibility, the Constitutional Court said.