
German prosecutor sacked over Netzpolitik treason probe - t23
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33772316
======
vog
_> The state investigation, into two journalists at Netzpolitik.org, is
currently paused._

This is wrong.

The investigation was never paused. Last week the prosecutor did claim he
would pause the investigation, but that was a misleading claim from the very
beginning - with the sole purpose to calm the public. Although that didn't
work out (the demonstrations happened nevertheless), it achieved some strange
success: The media keep repeating and repeating that, despite having no
evidence that anything was ever paused.

The only "pause" that exists is that the investigation is currently waiting
for an assessment ("Gutachten"). However, that is normal part of the
investigation and would have happened anyway. So this is "waiting" (passive),
not "pausing" (active). The prosecutor didn't do anything here to pause the
investigation.

~~~
DasIch
Given that Maas apparently intented to kill the Gutachten on Friday, I think
it's fair to assume that the investigation is not continuing or even merely
paused. It's definitely dead now.

The next prosecutor would have to be extraordinarily stupid to get involved in
this affair any further than required to put an official stop to the
investigation.

~~~
rostigerpudel
The Generalbundesanwalt (Public Prosecutor General, GBA) is a civil servant
bound by his superior's orders. That is why he can always be retired instantly
by the Minister of Justice (§54 BBG). So yes, it is extraordinarily stupid for
a GBA to against his orders.

In this case, however, I think Range actually wanted to be retired. He has
taken so much fire over his apparently incompetent statements relating to NSA
spying (among others he confused NSA and NASA on multiple occasions) that he
probably wanted to get out of what is otherwise a fairly quiet job. In
particular since there is pretty much nothing to gain anymore in this case.

~~~
DasIch
I completely agree. Range has completely mishandled the NSA situation but he
isn't stupid. It's obvious that this would get him retired and doing it this
way was decent attempt at stopping this whole affair and does his colleagues a
favor.

------
perlgeek
Just to reiterate something the article mentions, though the title doesn't
make it clear:

Range (the prosecutor) was sacked not for the prosecution itself, but for
accusing the minister of justice of interfering with the prosecution.

Range had plenty of material to cover his ass for the prosecution itself,
including an expertise that the leaked material was indeed state secret, the
fact that the ministry knew about the investigation, and a solid initial
suspicion.

------
themartorana
Part of me starts to think this is the difference between having press
freedoms outlined in a constitution, vs them being tolerated by the whim of
the acting government, but then I look at the U.S. and the prosecution of
reporters and whistle blowers and realize how tenuous press freedoms really
are - anywhere.

~~~
luchs
Press freedom is part of the German Grundgesetz (the constitution) as well, so
there's really no difference here.

~~~
eru
The German Grundgesetz even puts all those basic rights right at the beginning
and not just in the amendments.

~~~
Aloha
This strikes me as a weasel worded statement. The Bill of Rights was conceived
along side the constitution and kept out of the original constitution largely
for political reasons relating to getting a very contentious document approved
by the required minimum number of states for passage.

~~~
DasIch
What's important in particular about having those rights at the "beginning" of
the Grundgesetz is that the first 20 articles are immutable and cannot be
changed unlike the latter parts of the constitution.

~~~
germanier
This is not true. Only articles 1 and 20 can't be changed. For the rest in
between no such guarantee applies and they were changed a few times in the
past. Though most likely restricting any of the freedoms severely would be
ruled unconstitutional by the very first article.

~~~
eru
Of course, the constitution is just a piece of paper, and what's protecting
the rights in practice is a political system (especially courts) that tries
hard to keep them.

Most of the rights already come pre-holed with exceptions, though. And lots of
them contradict each other. There's lots of leeway, to justify a very wide
range of policies as different `tradeoffs' between the rights.

------
itistoday2
The United States should take a cue from them.

~~~
trhway
going to a demonstration in US could easily result in arrest and misdemeanor
charges - big no-no if you want to get/stay in the middle class and continue
having good jobs. It is a puritan society in its foundation.

~~~
coreyoconnor
I don't know why you were downvoted. This is a nice summary.

------
notNow
It looks like that Germany is in the midst of some low intensity power
struggle between many factions within the political system whether
intelligence agencies, Merkel's govt, the judiciary and finally the press.

~~~
tobltobs
That is how it is supposed to be, isn't it? Always trying to find a balance
between those opposing factions. Not like the US where all have capitulated
against the intelligence agencies.

~~~
mschuster91
Ahahaha. Just look at the NSU neonazi shithole if the ass-kissing to the NSA
doesn't show you enough, we Germans have capitulated to our and FVEY secret
services too.

~~~
allendoerfer
The difference seems to be, that the US agencies are causing more damage,
because they are actually competent at what they are doing, while the German
agencies are happy whenever they are invited to play with the big toys - thus
the ass-kissing.

I think the reason for this is mainly less budget partly due to the fact, that
the German agencies are often not federal agencies, e.g. each tiny state has
their own Verfassungsschutz.

I mean, the NSU affair was really bad, but incompetent-criminals-bad not
secret-state-government-bad.

~~~
PythonicAlpha
The NSU case is rather different. I have difficulties to see how all belongs
together, but I am also not sure, that incompetency is the only problem. We in
Germany have a long history of blind eyes on right-wing criminality. I think,
at least it is often covered, for prestige reasons.

------
sitkack
;)

