Icon: enlarge
Before the trial begins on Monday, the handcuffs will be removed from the main defendant
Photo: Harald Tittel / dpa
249,000 criminal offenses, a special mission with 650 officers, 403 confiscated servers, two million gigabytes of confiscated data - the police and the public prosecutor's office did not lack large numbers in the run-up to the trial against the cyber bunker operator.
Ultimately, the effort should have been worth it: Chief Public Prosecutor Jörg Angerer would like to see the cyber bunker convicted after five and a half years of investigative work.
The darknet data center in the small Moselle town of Traben-Trarbach is said to have made serious crimes possible: black drug markets, fraud and large cyber attacks are said to have used the cyberbunker's infrastructure.
(Read the large SPIEGEL reconstruction here.)
Icon: enlarge
The entrance gate to the site of the former cyberbunker after the raid at the end of September 2019
Photo: HARALD TITTEL / EPA-EFE / REX
The trial, which begins this Monday in front of the Trier district court, is one of the most complex cyber crime proceedings that have ever existed in Germany.
And it is not only in this respect that the procedure should be remarkable.
It offers an insight into the particularly important but closed world of the so-called bulletproof hosters for the Darknet.
There is also the question of what responsibility must be assumed by those who commit crimes through their servers.
No confession after arrest
The major German darknet trials of recent years have been surprisingly peaceful: the first known German operator of a darknet black market revealed his password in one of the first interrogations at the Federal Criminal Police Office in 2014.
Online wholesale dealer Shiny Flakes confessed its actions in the courtroom.
And the operators of what was then Germany's largest platform for child abuse recordings were mostly confessing.
The trials were more about the amount of the prison sentence than the question of whether the accused were guilty at all.
Read more with Spiegel Plus
More perspectives, more understanding.
Your advantages with SPIEGEL +
Icon: Check
DER SPIEGEL as a magazine
as an app, e-paper and on the e-reader
Icon: Check
All articles on SPIEGEL.de
Exclusive texts for SPIEGEL + readers
Icon: Check
Try one month for free
Cancel anytime online
A price
only € 19.99 per month
One month for € 0.00
Try now for 0.00 € Buy nowArrow to the right
Already have a digital subscription? Register here
Restore iTunes subscription
SPIEGEL + is processed via your iTunes account and paid for with a purchase confirmation.
24 hours before it expires, the subscription is automatically renewed by one month at the current price of € 19.99.
You can cancel the subscription at any time in the settings of your iTunes account.
In order to use SPIEGEL + outside of this app, you have to link the subscription to a SPIEGEL ID account immediately after purchase.
With the purchase you accept our general terms and conditions and privacy policy.