The source that leaked over 11.5 million documents, also known as the Panama papers, that belonged to the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, broke silence on Friday and showed a willingness to cooperate with law enforcement if he or she is offered protection from punishment.
Panama Papers leaker issued a manifesto that was provided to the german paper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which allegedly confirmed the authenticity of the author, self-declared “John Doe”. However, the sex or the nationality of the source is unknown. The source criticized from capitalism to the media in general and explained the main reason for exposing the documents to the journalists.
In the 1,800-word statement, the source commented that if law enforcement could access and evaluate the actual documents, thousands of prosecutions could stem from the famous and private papers. Willingness to cooperate with authorities was shown, although later the faith of previous whistleblowers, such as Edward Snowden and Bradley Birkenfeld, was criticized, according to the statement.
“Legitimate whistleblowers who expose unquestionable wrongdoing, whether insiders or outsiders deserve immunity from government retribution, full stop,” Doe said. “Until governments codify legal protections for whistleblowers into law, enforcement agencies will simply have to depend on their own resources or ongoing global media coverage for documents.”
As for Doe’s motivation, it was said that it was “the scale of injustice” that let the it reveal the documents. The reason was not for any specific political purpose, according to the manifesto, but simply due to the source understanding enough about the documents’ content to realize the scale of the injustices described. John Doe also denied to be part of the government or any intelligence agency, directly or as a contractor, at the moment or in the past, the author wrote in the statement.
Gathering the papers
Demands from the international community keep rising with the Germany’s federal states appeal to media outlets, also in Friday, to let prosecutors examine into full detail the so-called Panama Papers.
German legislative body representing 16 federal states passed the resolution that calls on Sueddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), one of the responsible for exposing the papers, to hand over the documents they gathered for the investigations.
If the data sets from the ‘Panama Papers’ are not made accessible, then it is not possible to draw any consequences against the people involved, said Peter-Juergen Schneider, Lower Saxony’s Finance Minister.
The scandal has involved prominent figures in the world, from famous people to world leaders looking for privacy in their earnings, some of which are Russian President Vladimir Putin, some relatives of the prime ministers of Britain and Pakistan, Xi Jinping President of China.
Source: Sueddeutsche Zeitung