German man indicted over leak of lawmakers' private data

BERLIN (AP) - German prosecutors have indicted a 22-year-old man on suspicion of stealing the personal information of dozens of lawmakers and journalists, trying to blackmail some of them and leaking the data online.

Frankfurt prosecutors said Tuesday that the suspect, who wasn't named for privacy reasons, obtained phone numbers, home addresses, credit card details, private photographs and messages of 73 people and bought further data from hundreds more on a now-closed website.

He is accused of publishing the private data via Twitter in December 2018 and January 2019. The leaks embarrassed some of the victims, but didn't cause significant political damage.

The suspect is also accused of making three false threats about imminent attacks and twice causing a person to wrongfully come under police suspicion between 2016 and 2018.