Press release of 19 April 1997
The search warrant issued by the district court for Berlin--Tiergarten (352 Gs 27/97), which was carried out on 10 April 1997 and makes mention of issue 4/1996 of our journal on culture, history and politics Sleipnir, states that the accused are suspected of an offence against para. 90a, section 1 of the criminal statutes (Stafgesetzbuch). This section headed "Defamation of the state or its symbols" reads: "Who publicly, whether in a congregation or through distribution of literature (para. 11, section 3) 1. insults or maliciously ridicules the Federal Republic of Germany or one of her Federal States or her constitutional order, or 2. defames the colours, the flag, the emblem or the hymn of the Federal Republic of Germany or one of her Federal States, will be subject to imprisonment of up to three years or a financial penalty."
We were not told which part of the 52-page long magazine was to match this criminal offence, and the contents of the confiscation order by the district court (352 Gs 800/97) were to date not communicated to us. This violates para. 13, section 2 of the Berlin Media Legislation (Pressegesetz), amongst others, which states:
"The confiscation order must make mention of the parts of a publication which give rise to the confiscation together with a citation of the laws thus violated." There was, therefore, no opportunity to avoid the confiscation by blanking out the offending passages, as is customary with the media. Or do the Berlin police and judiciary now interpret the law such that the offending passages only need to be mentioned to the judges and the police themselves, not however to the accused?
Today's search was, like the earlier ones, justified by the recovery of evidence which the prosecution should already have in their possession -- that is if the publications sought after indeed contains any evidence. Each copy of our journal clearly states the editorial responsibilities in its imprint. Furthermore, each copy carries a distribution code, so that the German Post can make exact statements about the numbers mailed out. In addition a copy of each issue is sent to the legal deposit office of the Berlin City Library, where it can be viewed.
Once again computers, accounting records, parts of the book stock, greater parts of correspondence and our modem were confiscated. The prosecution now has seven computers with monitors, printers and hundreds of disks, containing an amount of text which could fill the journal for many years to come, locked away. As far as we know this is a case without a precedent os such a massive seizure. We were so far not even permitted to make copies of our invoices issued before 15/11/1995, or 19/6/1996 respectively.
We intend to get judicial clarification of the legality of these measures. However, we lack currently the financial means to cover the legal and administrative costs to bring a case against the German authorities. If you can help, please send your contribution to account nr. 7439540 at Comdirect Bank (sorting code 200 411 11), stating reference "Rechtshilfe Presse" (legal aid media).
Andreas Roehler (editorial responsibility), Verlag der Freunde, Postfach 350264, 10211 Berlin, Tel/Fax +49 (0) 30-6927863 and Tel +49 (0) 30-4259312.
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