Amsterdam  - An Amsterdam court is due to hear a case on Thursday concerning alleged wiretapping of journalists by the country's secret service.

The Netherlands' biggest selling newspaper, De Telegraaf, the Dutch journalists association NVJ and the National Managing Editors Association are asking the court to prohibit the Dutch Secret Service (AIVD) from wiretapping journalists' phones on press freedom grounds and the protection of their sources.

The three also demand that the court orders the secret service to destroy any information it allegedly gathered about four Telegraaf journalists since the beginning of this year.

The legal proceedings follow a raid authorised by the public prosecutor on the home of De Telegraaf correspondent Jolande van de Graaf in June.

Prior to the raid on the journalist's home, AIVD had arrested one employee and one former employee on suspicion of leaking information to De Graaf about alleged secret service mistakes over the 2003 Iraq War.

In March De Telegraaf published De Graaf's story, which claimed the AIVD merely "copied" foreign intelligence information.

It failed to verify whether Saddam Hussein's regime actually possessed weapons of mass destruction, De Graaf wrote, citing anonymous AIVD sources.

The AIVD subsequently placed wiretaps on De Graaf's phones and those of three of her colleagues, according to the paper. They monitored her whereabouts "meticulously", the newspaper said. (Dpa)