Harald Range (16 February 1948 – 2 May 2018) was a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and was Attorney General of Germany.

Early life and career

After completing his studies at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

Range began his career with the judiciary of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

, serving as a judge from 1975 to 1978, as a prosecutor from 1978 to 1986 and as a senior prosecutor at the Higher Regional Court in Celle from 1986 to 1989. From 1989 to 2001 Range held various roles within the , including as the leader of the Criminal Law, Law of Criminal Proceedings, and Clemency Unit. From 2001 until 2011 Range served as the State Attorney General in Celle.

Attorney General of Germany

Range served as Attorney General of Germany from November 2011 until 2015. Following the 2011 attack on the British Embassy in Iran, Range launched investigative proceedings against possible plans for Iranian attacks on American military installations in Germany in the event of an attack against Iran. After coming under pressure from Parliament and the news media in June 2014, Range began a formal investigation of what he called “unknown” members of American intelligence agencies on suspicion that they had eavesdropped on one of

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

’s cellphones. By June 2015, he dropped the investigation because of a lack of concrete evidence. Based on the code of crimes against international law, Range investigated members of the Syrian government under

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government ...

on suspicion of committing crimes against humanity in 2015. In the aftermath of the treason investigation of netzpolitik.org, Federal Minister of Justice

Heiko Maas Heiko Josef Maas (; born 19 September 1966) is a German lawyerMarcus Jung (15 December 2022)�''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung''. and former politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the Mini ...

forced Range into retirement for breach of public trust on 4 August 2015.

Death

On the night of 2 May 2018, he collapsed in a café in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

and subsequently died. According to

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

, "reports suggest" that his death was caused by a heart attack.

Other activities

* Lions Foundation Germany, Member of the Board of TrusteesMembers of the Board of Trustees
Lions Foundation Germany. *

Lions Clubs International Lions Clubs International, is an international service organization, currently headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. , it had over 46,000 local clubs and more than 1.4 million members (including the youth wing Leo) in more than 200 geographic ...

, Member

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Range, Harald 1948 births 2018 deaths People from Göttingen Free Democratic Party (Germany) politicians Public Prosecutors General of Germany Jurists from Lower Saxony University of Göttingen alumni