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title: Police searches homes of „Zwiebelfreunde“ board members as well as „OpenLab“ in Augsburg
date: 2018-07-04 08:12:30
updated: 2018-07-04 08:44:38
author: 46halbe
tags: update, pressemitteilung
On June 20th, board members of the „Zwiebelfreunde“ association in multiple German cities had their homes searched under the dubious pretence that they were „witnesses“ while their computers and storage media were confiscated. The Augsburger CCC offshoot „OpenLab“ also had to contend with a search of their premises.
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For seven years, the Zwiebelfreunde association has been promoting and
creating privacy enhancing technologies, while also educating the public
in their use. At
[TorServers.net](https://torservers.net/ "Tor Servers Homepage"), the
association operates Relays of the Tor anonymising network while helping
operators technically and legally. In addition to this, the association
helps other organisations raise funds. The board members of the
association are not considered suspects but witnesses in the ongoing
investigation.
The story behind the searches and seizures is somewhat convoluted: There
was an anonymous website on the internet, calling for protests against
the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party convention in
Augsburg. The unknown operators of this website used an e-mail address
at Riseup, a well-known alternative provider. \[1\] The Zwiebelfreunde
association has a bank account to facilitate donations to
[riseup.net](https://riseup.net/ "Riseup Homepage").
Riseup is domiciled in the US, and essentially offers a non-commercial
alternative to Gmail. Because data-protection practices are in decline
world-wide, many NGOs and grassroots organisations use Riseup.
These facts have not yet reached the police in Bavaria. The state
prosecutor’s office in Munich has apparently been operating on the
mistaken assumption that everyone even tangentially connected to Riseup
would be able to provide information on any e-mail account registered
there, including that of the alleged illegal website. \[2\] The officers
on the scene made clear that they themselves felt this assumption would
not hold and said so to the witnesses. But they performed the searches
and seizures anyway.
With such contrived reasoning, almost anyone could be searched if the
anonymous website had been operated by people with a Gmail address. As a
consequence of this clearly nonsensical attempt at logic, those involved
in this as witnesses and their families have had to endure abjectly
disproportional intrusions into their homes. Homes were searched without
anyone even attempting to question the alleged witnesses.
A multitude of storage media, computers and other devices were
confiscated, also affecting family members of the association’s board
members - none of whom stands accused of a criminal act. Also affected
are completely unrelated businesses and sensitive projects of
Zwiebelfreunde, such as the Tails Linux distribution. Some of those
involved have had their requests to return the hardware denied.
„This is a textbook example of how easy the fundamental rights of
completely innocent citizens and their families can be violated as a
result of artificially constructed evidence chains, no matter how
ridiculous. To be drawn into this as a witness on the basis of such
patently unsustainable reasoning is questionable to say the least. The
recent introduction of draconian Bavarian laws governing police
authority has clearly led to a culture where those responsible no longer
feel bound by any sense of proportionality of their actions“, says Frank
Rieger, speaker for the Chaos Computer Clubs (CCC).
Just to recap: The mere presence of an e-mail address at a large free
provider on a website has caused law enforcement authorities to deduce
that a German association that helps raise funds for this provider must
be connected to this website somehow. Although Zwiebelfreunde clearly
has nothing to do with the operation of this provider, they were
suspected anyway. That these searches and seizures were ordered by the
Bavarian police shows either forensic incompetence at a very advanced
stage, malicious intent or both.
If you want to support Zwiebelfreunde – and still dare to send money to
their account – please check here: <https://www.zwiebelfreunde.de/>.
### Search of the OpenLab in Augsburg
While searching the premises of the board members in Augsburg, Jena,
Dresden, and Berlin, the police – on their own accord –decided to extend
the search to premises also used by members of the CCC: the OpenLab in
Augsburg. Here the officers were confronted with hackers in their
natural habitat: substances to clean and etch circuit boards as well as
hair bleach. After interpreting the contents of a whiteboard as a bomb
making manual, the officers then went on to accuse random people present
at the hackerspace of plotting a bombing attack. Three people were
arrested on the spot and the hackerspace was subsequently searched
without a court order and without any witnesses.
The police seized objects from OpenLab and used force to open locked
cabinets holding member data and bank records. It has to be assumed that
this information was copied and that the rights of members and
supporters of both association were violated.
Just like with the initial suspicion with regard to the board members of
Zwiebelfreunde, the subsequent suspicions with regard to explosives are
incompetent, malicious or both. The suspicion of „preparation of a
explosive attack“ is a grave and direct threat to the operation of a
hackerspace - family-friendly OpenLab is open to visitors almost every
day. If the mere possession of basic chemical knowledge is a cause for
suspicion then pretty soon teenagers will have to hide their chemistry
books from nosy cops.
### Links:
- \[1\] [https://riseup.net](https://riseup.net/)
- \[2\] [AfD protest
website](https://augsburgfuerkrawalltouristen.noblogs.org/impressum/)
- \[3\]
[https://www.zwiebelfreunde.de](https://www.zwiebelfreunde.de/)
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