Home affairs minister Ronald Plasterk is being taken to court by a group of individuals and organisations in connection with his handling of the NSA phone and internet taps.

The American National Security Agency tapped 1.8 million Dutch telephones in one month alone as part of its Boundless Informant surveillance programme, Dutch media revealed in October.

The group, which includes the Dutch journalists association and web provider XS4ALL founder Rop Gonggrijp, is demanding that the Dutch state stops using data acquired through means that fall outside Dutch law.

‘By using NSA data, illegal data is being whitewashed by Plasterk and his security services. This case is designed to stop this,’ the group’s lawyer Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm told the press on Wednesday.

The case will be heard on November 27 in The Hague.

Discussion

In the meantime, Plasterk told parliament on Wednesday he is sending the head of the security service AIVD to Germany to discuss the NSA phone and internet tapping case with his opposite number.

The minister wants the Dutch and German governments to work together in making it clear to the Americans that the practice must be abandoned.

The independent security service monitoring commission CTIVD is currently carrying out an inquiry into the methods used to collect information by the AIVD and the MIVD services.

Its report, which will include the use of internal phone and internet tapping and the exchange of information with foreign security services, is due for publication in January.