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ROME - Judges in Germany, France and Spain are demanding answers from Rome over accusations that Italian spies snooped on magistrates across Europe, even as a key lawmaker in Italy played down the affair.
The accusations were made on July 4 by Italy's Superior Council of the Magistracy, a senior judicial body headed by the country's president.
It anchored its accusations on files discovered during a police swoop on a secret spy office in Rome.
But since then, Italian lawmakers investigating the matter have raised doubts about the extent of any possible snooping.
Closed-door testimony on Tuesday, including by the former spy chief at the centre of accusations, led one Italian senator on a parliamentary intelligence oversight committee to rule out that any real spying on judges or prosecutors had taken place.
That has done little to calm fears about meddling with Europe's independent judiciary.
A union representing German judges said on Tuesday it had asked German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries to seek a full explanation from Italy on the affair, even though a ministry spokeswoman described the matter as an "internal" Italian issue.
A union representing French magistrates called on Paris last week to officially condemn any snooping by Italian spies.
In Spain, three judges had signed a statement calling on the country's General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) to ask the Italian authorities for information on the spy accusations, a CGPJ spokesman said on Tuesday.
The CGPJ will discuss the request of the judges at its next meeting on Thursday.
Italy's Justice Minister Clemente Mastella suggested in a recent newspaper interview that the discovered archives included at least some reference to Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, famous for trying to jail Chile's former dictator Augusto Pinochet.
The Superior Council of the Magistracy (CSM) said spies with Italy's SISMI military intelligence agency had targeted officials seen as hostile to Silvio Berlusconi's government when he was prime minister from 2001-2006.
The CSM did not accuse Berlusconi directly and he has since denied any wrongdoing, as has former SISMI head Nicolo Pollari.
Pollari, speaking before parliament's Copaco oversight committee, said on Tuesday the office in question was only open from 2004 to 2006 -- not from 2001, as the CSM had suggested.
One member of Copaco, Senator Alfredo Mantovano, said Rome investigators had "excluded the use of the term spying" or even collecting files on people to blackmail or influence them.
But Senator Massimo Brutti said it was too early to write off the accusations entirely.
"At this point, there is no data that would lead us to say that everything is OK ... it's a serious problem," he said.
- REUTERS
