UPDATE 1-Magazine mulls legal action against German spies
(Adds Afghan ministers, paragraphs 4-7)
BERLIN, April 24 (Reuters) - German news weekly Der Spiegel said on Thursday it was considering legal action after the BND foreign intelligence agency admitted spying on one of its journalists.
The magazine says BND head Ernst Uhrlau has apologised to journalist Susanne Koelbl for the agency's monitoring of her emails to an Afghan politician in 2006.
"In view of this renewed serious breach of press freedom, Der Spiegel has decided to look at the legal and constitutional implications of the case," it said in a statement.
The BND has yet to comment publicly on the affair.
Afghan's Trade and Industry Minister Amin Farhang, who German media identified as the object of the inquiry, said this implied he was co-operating with forces hostile to his government.
"Because of this absurd lie that I'm some kind of double agent, my life and the lives of my family are in great danger," he told Germany's Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung daily, according to an advance copy of the paper's Friday edition.
"I could be shot on the street tomorrow," he added.
Farhang said he was "deeply saddened" by the incident but added that although the BND had known about it since February, the government had yet to apologise to him. He had no desire to see relations between Germany and Afghanistan suffer, he added. Continued...
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