Berlin, February 8 (RHC)-- In Germany, a hacker group has filed a criminal complaint accusing the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel of illegally helping the United States spy on Germans.

Outcry in Germany previously erupted over news the U.S. spied on Merkel’s cell phone. But the Chaos Computer Club now accuses Merkel’s government of illegally collaborating with the National Security Agency and its British counterpart.

In a recent interview with the German TV station NDR, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden described the relationship between German and U.S. spy agencies as "intimate." He said that not only were the German services and the U.S. services in bed together, "sharing information and reporting results from intelligence, but they actually share the tools and the infrastructure; they work together against joint targets in services."