Germany ready to meet Snowden on US spying

Wants Snowden to shed light on spying scandal

Germany's Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich Friday said the government is willing to talk with whistleblower Edward Snowden on US spying in Germany including alleged monitoring of the mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The minister told reporters that Germany would like to talk with Snowden if he was willing to help shed light on the spying scandal, Xinhua reported.

Germany's opposition Green Party plans to release a letter by Snowden to Merkel following a lawmaker's meeting with Snowden in Moscow.

Christian Stroebele, lawmaker for the opposition Green Party, said after the meeting with Snowden Thursday that the whistleblower is willing in principle to help shed light on the spying.

Stroebele added that Snowden was prepared to travel to Germany to testify or to testify in Russia.

However, Snowden's lawyer Anatoly Kucherena told Russian media Friday that it was impossible for Snowden to leave Russia to be questioned by German prosecutors but he can provide testimony inside Russia.

Snowden was granted temporary asylum in Russia after exposing massive surveillance by the US intelligence service.

Meanwhile, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said Friday that the German government was not informed of the Green Party lawmaker's trip to Moscow. Germany has ruled out granting Snowden asylum.

The German government has voiced its anger at possible US intelligence's tapping of Merkel's phone, saying it would be "a serious breach of trust" if confirmed.

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said earlier this week that the German Federal Prosecutor's Office will have to consider the possibility of interrogating Snowden as a witness if suspicions on the spying prove correct and a case is opened.

Snowden, a former US intelligence contractor, provided classified documents with evidence of the alleged spying scandal.

American allies in Europe have been in an uproar over media reports that US intelligence agencies have monitored the communications of Merkel and tens of millions of phone calls in France and Spain.

However, US National Security Agency Director General Keith Alexander Tuesday told lawmakers that the recent media reports about the agency's spying on European allies were "completely false".