[pp.int.general] Some info required about Jörg Tauss.

[Alexander Schwoch]

You can be sure, that this topic is causing a lot of controversial discussions in the German pirate party. I think the discussion is important to discover how the party can handle such happenings.

Now just a few comments regarding the post from Slashdot, cited before, which I think is not really accurate:


> The whole thing is a joke. It was his job to handle child pornography cases. He left, because he was disgusted with the way it is handled now.
> And another group of politicians made his special rights vanish in the blink of an eye, so that he could not react, and they had a window for suing him. It was all staged.

First of all: It was *not* his job, although the topics he cared about, among others were the "new media". A representative of the parliament is of course allowed to do some "research" in the topics he wants to discuss. So far all is actions are covered by his immunity which prevent him from any lawsuit. 

However his investigations under cover lasted maybe longer or drag him in too deep, so he actually received some illegal material. That was the point where he should have gone to a lawyer and/or the prosecutor or police. Jörg Tauss himself declares that the form of his research was wrong.

It is correct that the way he is handled leads to a lot of questions: He was deprived of his immunity without asking him to the details. Maybe the politicians in charge of the immunity committee thought that Tauss might get away with any illegal doings if they hesitate. Nevertheless Tauss described the moment when he was confronted with the accusation against him: 

It was directly before a parliament conference where one of the topics was the new law against child pornography. Meanwhile the law, the Pirate Party and Jörg Tauss where fighting against, because it can allow censorship in the internet and is not helping any child, was approved.

Directly after Tauss was confronted with the accusations, he came out of the parliament and *already informed* journalists awaited him. I will try to translate the following passage of his official statement:

In German:
"Zu dieser von mir geschilderten Situation erklärte der Sprecher der Staatsanwaltschaft Karlsruhe, Oberstaatsanwalt Rüdiger Rehring, nach Presseberichten wie folgt: „Wir haben uns im Vorfeld die Köpfe zerbrochen, wie wir möglichst unauffällig Kontakt zu Herrn Tauss aufnehmen. Wir sind so zurückhaltend wie möglich vorgegangen.“  

Ich hoffe, die Staatsanwaltschaft Karlsruhe ist bei anderen Versuchen, sich die Köpfe zu zerbrechen, etwas erfolgreicher."  

In English:
"To the described situation [of confronting him with the accusation] the speaker of the public prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe, the senior prosecutor Rüdiger Rehring, said according to press statements: 'We racked our brains in the run-up to the confrontation, how we could contact Mr. Tauss without attracting attention. We were as cautious as possible.'

I hope the prosecuter's office Karlsruhe is more successful next time when racking their brains [in order to handle something discretely]."

Tauss himself does not accuse anyone of deceiving him. But some facts may arise the question, if someone wanted to damage him willfully using his "investigation" in child pornography. 


> Interestingly, that very group is known from the "Sachsen-Affäre". A large-scale scandal, where it is proven that they took private advantages, bribes (while in office), did illegal spying, human trafficking, child prostitution and drug dealing. And guess what happened to them. Exactly. Nothing.

This is correct that there was / is something happening like this happening in the saxony parliament. I do not know if there are still lawsuits pending. However this has nothing to do with Tauss as far as I know.



-- 
Alexander Schwoch (Reply to: alex at palc.de), ICQ: 50900699