On april the 2nd of 1998 took place the biggest attack against freedom of speech on internet 
in our country. The Guardia Civil proceeded to arrest some of the !Hispahack members  while they tried to blame it on the articles published in Mentes Inquietas (http://hispahack.ccc.de). 

  After a one year trial we are proud to inform our readers of  the absolving sentence that an intelligent judge has pronounced. This is the first sentence related to hacking in Spain. There was a really sensationalistic media coverage after the arrest, that has been reduced to few comments on the press now. 

  The Internet is today a bit more free, as is the person who has had to put up with the 
pressure of being the subject of a penal process for this long time.  It's worth looking at the affidavits done by The Guardia Civil (police), they  should become a guide on how NOT to conduct a cibercrime investigation.  If, as the affidavits say, the FBI helped in the case resolution, we absolutely understand why this american investigation agency's web has had problems in last weeks ... 

 All this started on September the 11th of 1997, the day in which as the sentence says, a hacker raided the UPC (Politechnic University of Catalunya) system. Though this action was reported at the end of March 1998, when the Guardia Civil had already finished the investigation. 

  Likewise !Hispahack was also blamed for a funny graffiti which appeared at the main page of the Congreso de los Diputados, as well as illegal access to various universities, Internet providers and to the NASA. 

  They should not be very confident in their proofs, as the prosecutor only maintained the accusation against JFS and only for the UPC system breakin. 

  From here, we want to denounce that the main reason  for the so-called !Hispahack case weren't the illegal actions attributed to its  members. Everybody in the spanish underground knows how insecure the UPC network (maintained by the esCERT) is, that's why it's been used by hackers for some years now. 

  The Guardia Civil acted against Mentes Inquietas because of an article that reported the suspicious friendship between law enforcement forces and software and telecomunications large firms and that was published at our Web as well as an article explaining the spanish laws related to raids and detentions. 

  During the "franquismo"'s (fascist regime that ruled spain from 1939 to 1975) last years, a book was writen explaining underground militants how to face police persecution and repression. We would like 
to believe that we are living in a society more free than it was then, though sometimes actions like these make us believe the opposite. 

The fact is that Mentes Inquietas problems started since we published the "Prisoner Rights article". 

  While the police investigation proceeded, the Guardia Civil obtained some users information from some Internet Providers (Intercom, MrBit, Servicom and RedesTB). The extreme was  the last one (RedesTB), that provided the Guardia Civil with a person's login and password, a person whose only crime had been to write an article against Telefónica (the spanish monopolistic telephony provider) abuses... all this without a judge  authorization. In the sentence, the judge considered that the password has the same legal value as a phone number, and can be retrieved without authorization. This is one of the points that we think could be negative for future trials. 

  In spite of these unusual actions, we don't want Mentes Inquietas to be considered as the Security Forces public enemy. Anselmo del Moral and  his staff (policemen) made their job the best way they knew. We think they are not the film's bad... that role belongs to other characters that have remained 
 hidden, and it is time to unmask them. 

  The Guardia Civil was not the responsible for the fusion into an only case of the GRN and UPC hacks. The responsible was an individual who worked  at the esCERT, and who decided to leave teaching in order to do more  profitable activities in the computer security area. 

  We are talking about a telecommunications engineer and MBA, whose brother works as GRN admin. A person who designed GRN through a cooperative, shared his e-mail address with this last firm's technician who was the !Hispahack denounce responsible. His level was clearly shown when he signed the report against JFS and went to the trial as witness for the prosecution while his prestige was in danger. 

  Also we can't make ISPs responsible for the prosecution we have been subjected to but the persons whose friendship with security forces is more than suspicious, and those who authorized the publishing of users information. 

  This is a very important time for Mentes Inquietas, an so we don't want to finish this 
 leading article with reproaches. Justice (not revenge) is also a dish which is served cold, we have had to wait for a long year in order to  feel at ease. But we must look at the future, an so we must thank 
 from here all the support we have received during this proccess... pointing up over all to Carlos Sanchez Almeida from the Almeida Lawyer's Office for his great professional defense and also to Fronteras Electronicas de España - FREE  (Spanish Electronic Frontier Foundation), and all those groups or persons who have been  with us in the worst momments, mainly to the CCC to give us web hosting in their servers, in those difficult moments. 

 Not just Mentes Inquietas... today all of us are a bit more free. But  we must be careful, the worst is still to come...