Special prosecutor appointed in Crypto spy scandal

A special public prosecutor has been named in connection with the Crypto spying affair involving manipulated encryption devices which the CIA and the German intelligence agency used to spy on half the world. Peter Marti, a former judge and district attorney, will look into the violations of official secrecy that took place during the investigation, the supervisory authority of the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) said on Thursday. In the course of the Crypto investigation, information from the confidential draft of the inspection report ended up in the hands of certain media. This caused serious institutional damage for parliament’s business audit commissions, the OAG’s supervisory authority said. The information had been leaked during the administrative consultation phase. In November the business audit commissions filed a complaint with the OAG against an unknown person for breach of official secrecy. Guise of Swiss neutrality The audit committee...