German Police searches the homes of the wikileaks.de domain owner

By EDRi · March 25, 2009

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: [Deutsche Polizei durchsucht die Häuser des Inhabers der Wikileaks-Domain | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1344]

The German Police searched the homes of Theodor Reppe, the owner of the
domain name wikileaks.de, alleging he was under investigation for
“distribution of pornographic material” and “discovery of evidence”

The seven police officers in Dresden and four in Jena having performed the
searches in the evening of 24 March 2009 claimed the raid was initiated due
to Mr. Reppe’s position as the Wikileaks.de domain owner.

However, it is not clear what exact documents were targeted, because the
German Police did not want to give any further information to Mr. Reppe and
no contact was made with Wikileaks before or after the search. But the
search is considered to be related with the publication of Wikileaks of the
censorship lists for Australia, Thailand, Denmark and other countries. The
lists include to sites alleged to contain pornography, including child
pornography. However, Wikileaks has not published any images from the sites.

Wikileaks also speculated on the search: “The raid appears to be related to
a recent German social hysteria around child pornography and the political
battle for a national censorship system under the German family Minister
Ursula von der Leyen. It comes just a few weeks after a member of
parliament, SPD Joerg Tauss had his office and private house searched by
police. German bloggers discussing the subject were similarly raided. ”

According to information from Reppe, the Police asked for the passwords to
the wikileaks.de domain and asked. for the entire domain to be disabled. But
Wikileaks.de and other Wikileaks domains were unaffected by the raid.

Reppe is just a volunteer who sponsors the domain for Wikileaks, but is not
involved in the day-to-day-operation of wikileaks and just mirrors a
collection of Wikileaks US Congressional Research Service reports.He also
maintains one of the most popular Tor servers in Germany.

Police raid home of Wikileaks.de domain owner over censorship lists
(24.03.2009)
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Police_raid_home_of_Wikileaks.de_domain_owner_over_censorship_lists

Police raid Wikileaks.de domain owner Theodor Reppe’s home over ‘censorship
lists’ (25.03.2009)
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25240192-5014239,00.html

House searches for owners of the domain wikileaks.de (only in German
25.03.2009)
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Hausdurchsuchung-bei-Inhaber-der-Domain-wikileaks-de-Update–/meldung/135147

Danish police mobilized Blocked list (only in German, 2.03.2009)

Dänische Sperrliste mobilisiert Polizei

Australia secretly censors Wikileaks press release and Danish Internet
censorship list (16.03.2009)
http://wikileaks.de/wiki/Australia_secretly_censors_Wikileaks_press_release_and_Danish_Internet_censorship_list%2C_16_Mar_2009