Amnesty challenges British spying programme at European court
LONDON (Reuters) - Amnesty International and two other civil liberties groups are suing the British government at the European Court of Human Rights over mass surveillance after their case failed in Britain in December.
Wikimedia and other groups sued the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) in March over widespread spying, ramping up pressure against governments' surveillance as exposed in 2013 by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
"The UK government's surveillance practices have been allowed to continue unabated and on an unprecedented scale, with major consequences for people's privacy and freedom of expression," Amnesty's legal counsel, Nick Williams, said.
Britain's surveillance watchdog ruled in December that Britain did not break human rights laws using mass monitoring techniques but said in February that some aspects of British intelligence-sharing with the U.S. were unlawful.
A powerful committee of British lawmakers said last month Britain's spy agencies carry out mass interception of emails and access large databases of individuals' details but that their actions were not unlawful.
The British government was not immediately available for comment.
The other plaintiffs are Liberty and Privacy International.
(Reporting by Karolin Schaps; Editing by Louise Ireland)
