Federal prosecutor opens probe into potential breaches by IT office

Health minister Alain Berset at a press conference on the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2022. © Keystone / Anthony Anex

The Swiss federal prosecutor has opened proceedings against employees at the federal information technology office in connection with the handling of emails from the Swiss president’s former communications chief.

The investigation, which was first revealedExternal link by the SonntagsZeitung, is intended to determine whether the Federal Office of Information Technology and Telecommunication (FOITT) violated the Data Protection Act.

Linda von Burg, spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, confirmed the proceedings, indicating that they are “against unknown persons on suspicion of breaching official secrecy”.

The case concerns emails that were handed over by the FOITT to the special prosecutor, Peter Marti, that raised suspicion of potential leaks of confidential information from Peter Lauener, the communications chief of Swiss health minister Alain Berset, to the Ringier media group. The confidential information concerned the federal government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the SonntagsZeitung report, the FOITT handed over more email communication than requested by Marti. This email communication is what triggered the case against Lauener, who is under investigation over allegedly breaching official secrecy.

Marti obtained the emails from the IT office in connection with a completely different case. In 2021, the special investigator had requested a “few emails” from Lauener, writes the SonntagsZeitung, but the IT Office handed over all of his email traffic over a three-year period. 

Marti told the paper that if the sealed email traffic is found to have been obtained through legal means, then he “will continue to investigate the Peter Lauener case”.

The so-called “corona leaks” have been the subject of extensive media attention. Some of the alleged leaked information included a reported tip-off about Swiss plans to buy vaccines. Berset has repeatedly said he had no knowledge of alleged leaks from his department to the media.