An open letter to his Excellency Dr. Michael Witter, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Government in Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Nauru.

Dear Mr. Ambassador,

I write to you with regard to events that have transpired on Friday, the gravity of which have led me to question the democratic integrity of the Federal Republic of Germany.

On Friday morning, May 20, German law enforcement officers seized the information technology and communications infrastructure of the Piratenpartei, a legal and officially recognised political party. The seizures have transpired irrespective of the fact that the Party is not suspected of any illegal activity.

Media reports suggest that the seizures have occurred as a result of investigations by the French law enforcement organisations into an alleged distributed denial of service attack, an event which itself occurred several months prior to the seizure. French investigators are of the opinion that one of the servers, which provides collaborative services and tools that may be used by the general public, may have been used by an individual or individuals in the planning of the alleged attack. Indeed, it should be noted, that we as a party also use services provided by the Piratenpartei which were affected by these seizures.

German law enforcement officials have not however, seized only the server in question, but instead all servers used by the Piratenpartei for communication and organisation.

The gravity of this situation in where a legal and officially recognised political organisation is paralysed in itself is deeply troubling. It is however compounded by the fact that this event has transpired two days prior to elections which are being held in the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, in which the Piratenpartei is participating.

The seizure of essential campaign organisation and planning infrastructure is expected to severely hamper and paralyse the electoral campaign of the Party.

Both the timing, in its proximity to the election in the State of Bremen in relation to the investigation of an event that transpired some months ago, and the sheer enormity of the seizure of the entire organisational and planning infrastructure, where only a small amount of data located on a single server is required, raise significant concerns about the political impartiality of German law enforcement officials and the sanctity of democratic institutions and processes.

I write to you to pose the following questions: will an inquiry be held regarding the actions of German law enforcement officials, with regards to their proportionality and whether they have interfered with the rights afforded under Article 21 on the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany?

What undertakings will the government of Germany take to ensure that such interference in the political process does not occur again?

I thank you for your time, and look forward to your response.

Kind Regards,

Rodney Serkowski

President, Pirate Party Australia