The buy a bunker you have to ask the "Bundeanstalt für Immobilien"… I would like to know how it is possible for a criminal man from a domestic country, to buy such a sophisticated piece of war relict… Who knows about all of this?

Translated (German)

Cyberbunker trial nears end

Dozens of trial dates, thousands of pages of files and tens of thousands of crimes that were committed via computers: Almost a year after it began, the trial about a "cyber bunker" on the Mosel is entering its final phase.

Trier - The Trier "cyber bunker" trial about an underground darknet computer center as a platform for criminal business has always impressed with its numbers.

Almost 250,000 criminal acts are said to have run through 400 servers in an old bunker in Traben-Trarbach. Deals involving drugs, counterfeit money or cyber attacks were worth several million. And investigators were on the switchboard for five years until hundreds of police officers busted the operators in September 2019.

For almost a year now, eight defendants have been standing trial in the Trier Regional Court. In one of the largest cybercrime trials to date in Germany: that was the title given to the proceedings by the Koblenz Prosecutor General's Office, to which the State Cybercrime Central Office belongs, at the start of the trial on October 19, 2020. The seven men and one woman are accused of founding a criminal organization and aiding and abetting the quarter of a million crimes.

Eight defendants, 16 defense attorneys

After more than 100 witnesses, thousands of pages of files, dozens of trial days - sometimes twice a week - the trial is now slowly drawing to a close. At least the taking of evidence. The chamber wants to conclude its program towards the end of September, said the defense lawyer of the main accused Dutchman, Michael Eichin. Then there would be motions for evidence from the defense. And finally, pleas would be made: Each of the eight defendants would have two defense lawyers. The trial is scheduled until the end of 2021.

Attorney Sven Collet estimates that the trial could be over by mid-November. "I expect that we will definitely be through by the end of the year." He represents Calibour GmbH, which had operated the data center advertised as a "bulletproof hoster" ("bulletproof" from police access), and whose sole representative is the main defendant.

Aiding and abetting or not?

One of the central questions in the mammoth trial is: Has it been possible to prove that the defendants aided and abetted - that is, that they knew about the illegal activities of their customers? And that they assisted them in doing so? For Eichin, there are many indications that "there will probably be no aiding and abetting. But what is still in the air, of course, is the formation of a criminal organization." Even if he does not consider it justified.

Collet, too, says: "You'd have to establish aiding and abetting for each individual case." That is difficult, he says, since the data center is really nothing more than a safe deposit box. "And as long as we can't open it ourselves and look inside, we don't know what people are putting in there." With the accusation of criminal association, he said, you have to look at who that might apply to. "Not to everybody."

The court is not very forthcoming when asked about the status of the case. "The taking of evidence is still ongoing," the press office announced. The fact that the trial is taking so long is "due to the scope of the trial material." Investigators were heard predominantly. However, it is probably not the longest trial at the Trier Regional Court.

On Monday and Tuesday (27/28.9.) the hearing of evidence continues. "The further course and duration of the proceedings depends in particular also on the defense behavior of the defendants," the press office further announced. The defendants are four Dutch, three Germans and a Bulgarian.

Lawsuit before Federal Court?

Lawyer Eichin criticized "serious investigative deficits" that had repeatedly come to light during the trial. For example, in the evaluation of the servers. "It was claimed that there was nothing legal on these servers. And then it turns out that only five percent was evaluated." That his client should have known about all this is "absurd".

Personally, he said, he was bothered by the fact that the public prosecutor's office was investigating "really very, very one-sidedly." "They really only look at: What is incriminating? The exculpatory is completely blanked out." The "hunting instinct" is clear, he said; they wanted to get the package they spent five years putting together done. "But you have to imagine: People have been in custody for two years now in some cases."

https://www.fnp.de/netzwelt/cyberbunker-prozess-naehert-sich-dem-ende-zr-91006555.html

(Meme is German, but this is the bunker… Underground, Trains, Helicopter and so on… Sickshit!)