1/5
Federal Councilor Karin Keller-Sutter has the legality of data deliveries from the federal government to special investigator Peter Marti clarified.
Tobias OchsenbeinEditor Politics
Now the IT experts at the federal government are trembling. The new Minister of Finance Karin Keller-Sutter (59) is investigating why the Federal Office for Information Technology and Telecommunications (BIT) special investigator Peter Marti (72) released all existing emails from Peter Lauener (52).
The special investigator had only asked the BIT for the mail traffic from the former communications chief of Health Minister Alain Berset (50), which fell within a precisely defined six weeks. If confidential information was found among the data supplied, someone in the BIT may have been guilty of breaching official secrecy.
Legal service entrusted with clarification
Keller-Sutter obviously wants to come clean on this issue. The St. Gallen native took over the finance department (EFD) from Ueli Maurer (72) at the beginning of the year – and thus also responsibility for the BIT.
With the investigation, which the “Tages-Anzeiger” first reported on, the legal service of the General Secretariat of the FDF is supposed to clarify how the comprehensive data publication could have come about. In addition, internal BIT processes should be checked and checked to see whether they need to be adjusted. The FDF does not communicate any further details because this is an ongoing procedure.
He promised careful handling
At the beginning of September 2021, Marti asked the BIT for the release of Lauener’s mail traffic for the period from October 7th to November 15th, 2020. He was used to find out how the leaks to the “NZZ” and the “Tages-Anzeiger” could have come about in connection with the crypto affair. These had previously quoted from a confidential report by the audit delegation.
When he received many more Lauener emails, Marti even drew the Federal Office’s attention to it. And promised he would handle it carefully. The responsibility for the process, he assured, lies with him.
Swisscom also delivered everything
But not only the BIT handed over the entire contents of the mailbox to special investigator Marti. Swisscom also sent him all the emails from Lauener’s private account. As with the BIT, the question of the legality of the comprehensive data delivery also arises here.
At the end of January 2022, Marti requested Lauener’s private emails from Swisscom. And this time not just for those six weeks around the crypto leaks, but from the beginning of October 2021 to January 27, 2022.
Why did Marti extend the time span?
This long period of time should interest the second extraordinary public prosecutor, Stephan Zimmerli. Zimmerli was deployed to review Marti’s actions. The question arises as to what legal basis he used to contact Swisscom, because the crypto affair was already over in mid-November 2021.
Was Marti Lauener already targeted for alleged indiscretions related to Corona? If so, the legal basis is shaky here too. Because the special investigator had no authorization for that in January 2022. He only applied for this on April 4, 2022, nine days later he received it from the supervision of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (AB-BA).
burden for the procedure
The fact that Swisscom – like the BIT before it – delivered all possible emails immediately increases the number of possible errors in the process. Swisscom does not comment on the case. Peter Lauener had the emails sealed. So Marti is not allowed to use it at the moment.
Because “Switzerland at the weekend” had made excerpts from the interrogation protocols public, the emails became known anyway. The newspaper made it public that there was a lively exchange of emails between Lauener and Marc Walder (57) during the Covid pandemic. Walder is the head of Ringier Verlag, which also publishes Blick.
It is still unclear whether or not Lauener violated official secrecy with the emails to the Ringier boardroom and in his exchanges with other publishers. The presumption of innocence applies – also for Marti and those responsible at the BIT and Swisscom.