crypto and law enforcement

[anon-remailer@utopia.hacktic.nl (Name Withheld by Request)]

In June, four people were arrested for allegedly producing the illegal
newspaper "radikal" in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. One of the main
reasons for imprisonment was that they refused to decrypt the disks
found with them.

The Attorney at the Federal Supreme Court now claims that three disks
have been partially decrypted, but does not reveal the texts to the
defense counsel because that could be "a danger to the
investigations". The fact that the accused did not help in decryption
is seen as an indicator for danger of collusion, so they will remain
imprisonned on remand.

It seems that these four people will face several years of
imprisonment mainly because one of them chose a weak passphrase.