Berlin-based journalist and German citizen Hüseyin Doğru has committed no crime, and yet he, then his wife — and now even his retired mother — have had their bank accounts frozen by German authorities. The family, which includes three young children, must subsist on approximately €506 per month. Doğru has said the situation has put them at acute risk of homelessness. This has persisted despite a Berlin court recently raising "serious doubts about the lawfulness" of the measures undertaken by the Central Sanctions Enforcement Office (ZfS), which subsequently unfroze his wife's account.
According to Doğru, none of the 38 pages of the classified evidence package against him even contains the word Russia.
HEIST is a worker-owned online magazine, founded by writers and editors who after years working across Berlin's media landscape believed something essential was missing.
Anyone living here has felt a growing gap between the city as it actually is and the version being served up by mainstream outlets. We experienced that disconnect firsthand. We saw political censorship shape coverage decisions and felt the weight of billionaire ownership land directly on our work. It reached a point where we could either keep going along with it, or try to build something better.
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