Police in the German federal state of Bavaria have raided regional offices of the Pirate Party. A spokespirate claims that the raid came after an anonymous informer from the Bavarian ministry of justice leaked a document containing directives concerning how to split the costs of a trojan used to wiretap a suspect's Skype account.

Prosecutors had commissioned wiretapping company Digitask to install a trojan and monitor the suspects VoIP (voice over internet protocol) activities. According to the Pirate Party, there are no legal grounds for police and prosecution to use trojans.

Digitask charges €3,500 a month for running its Skype capture software, and an additional €2,500 for SSL-decoding services. The installation fee is a further €2500. The Pirate Party called the monthly price "dumping".

There is currently a big discussion going on in Germany regarding new laws giving the police a legal basis to install trojans to monitor a suspect's PC and peripherals. Civil rights and digital rights groups have been blasting ideas to search people's PCs without probable cause.

A party member's server has also been seized, yet it appears the police will bite their teeth out on it as it was encrypted by devious means. X