Were 11 Spanish Anarchists Arrested for Using Secure Email?

In mid-December, 11 Spanish anarchists were arrested by Catalan police in Barcelona, and it now appears they were detained at least in part because they were using an encrypted suite of secure communication tools known as Riseup.net. At the moment, seven of them are still waiting to stand trial. No formal charges have been made public.

A boy waves an independentist flag in the town hall square in Barcelona. Image credit: Jordi Boixareu/Flickr

Early media reports suggested that those charged may have played a role in the destruction of ATMs around the city in 2012 and 2013, but that report hasn’t been confirmed, because the Spanish judge presiding over the case has refused to make the official police report public. However, Judge Gomez Bermudez noted this week that the defendants “were using emails with extreme security measures, such as RISEUP.net.” The defendants were also accused of having a book called Against Democracy and of having a “internal organizational and bureaucratic structures.”

The email service they use shouldn’t be one of the determining factors in whether they’re arrested.

In the activist world, RiseUp.net is a pretty well-known secure email service that’s run by a nonprofit collective in Seattle. The website Security in a Box, which is run by a human rights NGO and reviews various encryption and personal security services, notes that it’s “managed by trustworthy advocates of internet privacy and security.” It also says, however, that using a RiseUp email address could draw the eyes of authorities, which of course is the concern here: “An unusual email service may attract unwarranted attention. It might make more sense in some situations to blend in by using a popular email service in your country.”

Video: Thousands protest against ‘terrorist’ arrests in Spain

Catalan police had arrested 11 people accused of belonging to anarchist terrorist organizations. The group is thought to been behind explosions in banks and churches in the past.