Search and Seizure at LabourNet Germany

ON TUESDAY, JULY 5th, all at about 6.30 AM the apartments of Mag Wompel (head of staff, LabourNet Germany), Wolfgang Schaumberg (director of LabourNet Association) and Ralf Pandorf (LabourNet Germany webmaster and member of the board of LabourNet Association) were searched by police forces.

All Computers (including laptops, servers and reserve machines), a lot of CD-R and parts of written archives were seized.

The police action took place following a Bochum local court decision (judge Gerkau, case number 64 GS - 3146/05), based on the blame of falsification of documents.

As a police agent told us, on December 14th of 2004 a leaflet was distributed containing a falsified letter of Bochum branch of the "Federal Agency for Employment". We did not know about the leaflet until the the police interrogation of Ralf Pandorf on 13.07.05.

There is no link between the leaflet and us apart of the connection of the LabourNet homepage and the "Aktion Agenturschluss" (a campaign about actions of civil disobedience against the so-called Hartz-laws, in which, along with others, the Labournet Germany is enrolled) in a confession letter of the Kommando Paul Lafarque" published in indymedia on 22.12.2004.

Through our legal representative we demanded the immediate return of the confiscated material. On 11.07.05 our computers were returned but many important documents, including a CD-R and written archives, especially the correspondence at the time of the "Aktion Agenturschluss" and "Aktion Schwarze Schafe" (a campaign which informs about the conditions of employment of 1-euro-workers) still are at the public prosecutor.

We are really concerned about the protection of our informants!
For that we express sharpest protest against this totally extreme and unmeasured action and state that our freedom of press is heavily damaged.

We still depend on protest and solidarity!

Please send protest faxes and mails to the court and the public prosecutor of Bochum demanding the return of the documents. Address to:
Staatsanwaltschaft Bochum Westring 8-44782 Bochum Telefax: +49-234-9672587 E-Mail: Poststelle@STA-BOCHUM.nrw.de

Amtsgericht Bochum Viktoriastraße 14-44787 Bochum Telefax: +49-234-9672424 E-Mail: poststelle@ag-bochum.nrw.de

At the court the case is considered under the sign 64 GS 3146/05 and at the public prosecutor under 2 Js 40 / 05.

We will be publishing continuously all news on our homepage www.labournet.de. e-mail: redaktion@labournet.de

In solidarity, Mag Wompel
--
LabourNet Germany: http://www.labournet.de/
The meeting point for all left-wing trade unionists, both waged and unwaged
Le point de rencontre de tous les militants syndicaux progressistes, qu`ils aient ou non un emploi

For LaborNet US Readers Please send a copy of your protest statement to labornet@igc.org