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FDP politician Buschmann: "Reject unprompted data retention"
Photo: Thomas Trutschel / imago images / photothek
Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) wants to get rid of the controversial data retention in Germany.
"I reject the unprompted data retention and would like to delete it from the law for good," said Buschmann to the newspapers of the Funke media group on Tuesday.
"It violates fundamental rights," he said in explanation.
"If everyone has to reckon with the fact that a lot of their communication is saved for no reason, then nobody feels free anymore," says the FDP politician.
For this reason, the use of unjustified data retention has been "repeatedly stopped" by the courts.
In Germany it is currently on hold.
Buschmann spoke out in favor of telecommunications providers "having to back up data quickly on a specific occasion by a court order so that the police and the public prosecutor's office can then evaluate it."
In addition, this should "only be possible if serious criminal offenses are suspected".
The procedure, also known as "Quick Freeze", has long been considered a better alternative in the FDP.
A »surveillance accounting« as the goal
Such a procedure would be "under the rule of law and would give the investigators an instrument for uncovering crimes again," said Buschmann.
"That would be a gain for freedom and security at the same time."
The Minister of Justice also announced that, together with Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), the security laws as a whole would be put to the test.
“As one of the first projects I would like to initiate a surveillance accounting with Nancy Faeser.
And we want to scientifically evaluate the security laws independently during this election period, ”he said.
The aim is to »strengthen civil rights«.
In the coalition agreement between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP, no blanket rejection has been given to data retention.
On page 109 it says vaguely: "In view of the current legal uncertainty, the impending judgment of the European Court of Justice and the resulting security policy challenges, we will design the regulations for data retention in such a way that data can be stored in a legally secure manner and by judicial decision."
You can read more about the above-mentioned, pending judgment of the European Court of Justice here.
mbö / AFP
