[WSIS CS-Plenary] Statewatch statement on IMC Seizures under MLAT

[karen banks]

dear all,

Here is a comprehensive statement on the IMC Server seizure from Statewatch 
in the UK.

There will be follow up with a call for further action - more information 
soon..

karen
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Full Statewatch Statement on Indymedia Server Seizures at:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2004/oct/04uk-usa-indymedia.htm
see for links and evaluation of MLAT inplications

EXTRACT:

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:

"Rackspace may be a US company but Rackspace in London is subject to UK law 
not US law. If they took down and handed over Indymedia's servers simply on 
the basis of a US subpoena communicated to them this would not be lawful in 
the UK.

However it seems more likely that the US subpoena was the subject of a 
request for mutual legal assistance from the US Attorney General to the UK 
Home Secretary under the MLA Treaty. It would for the Metropolitan Police, 
probably accompanied by the FBI, to enforce the request and take possession 
of the servers.

This begs the questions: Why did the Home Office agree? What grounds did 
the USA give for the seizure of the servers? Where these grounds of a 
"political" nature? Has the Home Office requested that the servers be 
returned? What does this action say about freedom of expression and freedom 
of the press?

A trail that started in Switzerland and Italy has now ended fairly and 
squarely in the lap of the UK Home Secretary to justify."