BERLIN (Reuters) - German prosecutors have opened an investigation into a former cabinet minister on suspicion of betraying confidential information nearly two weeks after he resigned, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
Former agriculture minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, a conservative, quit over accusations he leaked confidential information about a fellow lawmaker suspected of possessing child pornography.
"We have started proceedings", said a spokesman for Berlin prosecutors.
Friedrich had in October 2013 told the chairman of the Social Democrats (SPD), with whom the conservatives were in coalition talks, that the name of a then SPD lawmaker Sebastian Edathy had come up as part of an international investigation.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke)
