U.K. Police Open Criminal Probe Based on Journalist's Seized Snowden Materials [View all]

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Source: WSJ

LONDON--U.K. police have opened a criminal investigation based on materials seized during the recent detention here of the partner of a journalist who has as written about National Security Agency surveillance programs and fugitive document leaker Edward Snowden.

Lawyers representing London's Metropolitan Police disclosed the investigation during a hearing at a British court on Thursday, but declined to elaborate on who was the target of the probe, or what potential crimes had been committed. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said it didn't immediately have any further comment.

The hearing in London's High Court related to a claim filed by David Miranda--the partner of Glenn Greenwald, a journalist for the Guardian newspaper--challenging the lawfulness of his detention for nearly nine hours and the seizure of his electronic equipment, including mobile phone, laptop and memory sticks, by British police on Sunday at Heathrow Airport.

Mr. Miranda was in transit on his way from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro, where he lives with Mr. Greenwald, an American. Mr. Miranda was transporting journalistic material between Mr. Greenwald and a Berlin-based documentary filmmaker who had worked extensively with the Guardian journalist on his NSA stories.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130822-708136.html