8 WEBER AND SARAVIA v. GERMANY DECISION (4) the illegal importation of drugs in substantial quantities into the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany; (5) the counterfeiting of money (Geldfälschung) committed abroad; (6) the laundering of money in the context of the acts listed under points 3 to 5. Pursuant to section 3(1), third sentence, restrictions on the secrecy of telecommunications could also be ordered for telecommunications via fixed telephone lines and for mail in order to identify and avert the dangers listed in section 3(1), second sentence, point 1. 28. The Federal Constitutional Court found that, pursuant to Article 73, point 1, of the Basic Law (see paragraph 15 above), the federal legislature had exclusive legislative power to regulate the matters listed in section 3(1) of the amended G 10 Act, as they concerned foreign affairs. 29. However, the Federal Constitutional Court took the view that allowing the monitoring of telecommunications in order to prevent the counterfeiting of money abroad, in accordance with point 5 of section 3(1) in its present wording, constituted a disproportionate interference with the secrecy of telecommunications as protected by Article 10 of the Basic Law. It argued that this danger as such could not be considered to be as serious as an armed attack on the German State or any of the other dangers listed in section 3(1). The counterfeiting of money should therefore be included in section 3(1) only if it was restricted to cases in which it threatened the monetary stability of the Federal Republic of Germany. The court ruled that, pending the entry into force of legislation in compliance with the Constitution, section 3(1), second sentence, point 5, was to be applied only if the counterfeiting of money abroad threatened monetary stability in Germany. 30. In practice, wireless telecommunications (as opposed to telecommunications via fixed telephone lines) comprised some ten per cent of the total volume of telecommunications at the relevant time. However, given technical progress, the volume of such telecommunications was expected to rise in the future. 31. Technically, telecommunications via satellite links (with the satellites being positioned some 36,000 km above the equator) could be intercepted from sites in Germany if the signal reflected by the satellite (the “downlink”) covered the area in which the station was located. The area covered by the satellite beam depended on the satellite technology used. Whereas signals downlinked by older satellites often “beamed” across one-third of the earth’s surface, more modern satellites could concentrate their downlink on smaller areas. Signals could be intercepted everywhere within the area covered by the beam. International radio relay links (Richtfunkstrecken) could be intercepted from interception sites on German soil only if the radio relay transmission was effected within close proximity of these sites.

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