Dutch Ministry Faces Lawsuit Over NSA Illegal Phone Tapping

A group of lawyers, journalists and privacy advocates is taking the Netherlands government to court to stop Dutch intelligence using phone data illegally acquired by the American secret agency National Security Agency (NSA), AFP reports Wednesday. The group includes five individuals and four organizations. They filed the case before The Hague district court. Dutch home affairs ministry is the defendant in the case. NSA tapped 1.8 million Dutch telephones in one month year. National Security Agency Headquarters / Wikipedia According to the plaintiffs, judges should "declare that the Dutch state was acting illegally by receiving information from foreign intelligence services, which had been collected through spy programmes like (the NSA's) PRISM, contrary to Dutch law." The plaintiffs want the Dutch government to tell them "in writing" within three months what type of information was gathered about them and what the information was used for. The case will be heard on November 27.