The Ethereum Core developer, Federico Carrone, known as “Fede’s Intern”, confirmed that he was released after being arrested in Turkey for 24 hours of course links with an Ethereum privacy protocol.
“I am finally out, safe and free. There was a small moment when things looked very bad, but thanks to the help of many who freed me,” Carrone said in an X post on Monday.
According to Carrone, Turkey’s Minister of Internal Affairs accused him of “helping others to Miuse Ethereum” in alleged connection to a privacy protocol. Carrone said he believes he is linked to a research work in January 2022 that evaluated the user’s privacy in Ethereum and Tornado Cash.
“We never helped anyone to participate in illegal activities, it was purely an investigation into mixers and their properties,” Carrone said.
The incident adds to a worrying tendency that cryptography developers are arrested and detained by connections with open source privacy protocols, none more noticeable than tornado co -creats Cash Alexey Pertsev and Roman Storm, which awaits a final verdict in a high profile trial in New York.
This result could establish a precedent to criminalize open source privacy tools, at least in the United States, raising a serious risk for decentralized financial innovation and significantly restrict privacy rights.
Carrone now in Europe after receiving help
While Carrone is now in Europe, he said that the situation did not seem promising from the beginning, since they told him that he would be stripped of his mobile phone and that he could not talk to anyone.
Carrone said that fortunately some of his nearby friends of the EAU, the United Kingdom, USA, Europe, Argentina and even the Catholic Church immediately intervened to help, some contacting senior officials in Turkey to ensure their liberation.
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Even the members of the Solana ecosystem provided contacts and offered to help, Carrone added.
“I will never forget their help and I hope that one day I give back to all who supported me.”
Carrone willing to return to Türkiye to resolve it
However, the case is still ongoing, according to Carrone, and added that his Turkish lawyer is still working on his defense.
“We still don’t have the complete image of what happened or why it happened, but we will bring the best team we can and solve this,” Carrone said. “If required, [once] Things are resolved, I will return to clean my name and defend ourselves. ”
Carrone makes a massive donation to Storm’s legal defense
On Tuesday, Carrone said he donated $ 500,000 in Ether (ETH) to help Storm’s legal defense in the light of what happened to him.
“Roman’s legal defense is important because builders everywhere need to know that they can boost innovation and that the community will support them when they do it.”
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