Britain launches investigation over seized Snowden-linked data

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Britain launches investigation over seized Snowden-linked data

(Xinhua) 15:59, August 23, 2013

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LONDON, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- A British government lawyer said on Thursday that the country's police had launched a criminal investigation into Edward Snowden's leak of classified documents to the Guardian newspaper, noting the recently seized material was "highly sensitive."

"That which has been inspected contains, in the view of the police, highly sensitive material disclosure of which would be gravely injurious to public safety and thus the police have now initiated a criminal investigation," said Jonathan Laidlaw, lawyer appearing for Scotland Yard.

Laidlaw made the announcement at London's High Court, where David Miranda, Brazilian partner of Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald who helped Snowden disclose the classified material, sued to stop the police from carrying out further examination of the data seized from him.

According to the court ruling, the British police could examine the documents on condition that it was for the defence of national security and to investigate any possible links to terrorism.

Meanwhile, the Home Office and Scotland Yard, in order to continue their investigation over the Snowden-linked material, will have to provide more evidence of the threat posed by the material at another hearing next Friday.

Miranda was held for nine hours without charge at Heathrow airport on Sunday. His laptop, cellphone, memory cards and some DVDs were confiscated by British agents. He returned to Rio de Janeiro on Monday.

On Tuesday, Greenwald said in Brazil that he had backups of everything and will not stop publishing anything.

Greenwald helped Snowden, who has been granted temporary asylum in Russia, disclose the mass surveillance programs by the U.S. National Security Agency and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters in a series of reports on the Guardian.

（Editor：LiangJun、Zhang Qian）