Germany's Federal Prosecutor General Harald Range has decided to launch a criminal investigation into alleged hacking of Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Tuesday.

The mass spying on German citizens by the NSA, however, will at least provisionally not be placed under formal investigations, according to the report.

It is said that Range's decision to look into the monitoring of Merkel's cell phone is a reaction to angers triggered by reports about a possible drop of NSA snooping investigations.

Range did not find enough evidence to warrant criminal proceedings into the cases, reported Sueddeutsche Zeitung last week, citing sources from the prosecutor's office.

In Range's opinion, the newspaper said, the proceedings would be purely "symbolic" since it is impossible to gather evidence about the activities of the NSA or its British counterpart GCHQ on German soil. Endi

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