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Wednesday May 1, 1996

Please post the following letter along with my fax number (which is 011-10-411-9651 from the USA; from other countries omit the first three digits and substitute your own county's international telephone access code). Donald Mader

Waterloostraat 155
NL-3062 TM Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Fax: +31 10 411-9651

 
  1. May, 1996

You may have read from posts by Larry Stanley and myself of my arrest by the Amsterdam Morals Police on 6 November 1995, on charges of participation in a criminal organization with the purpose of distributing child pornography. Among my co-defendants are the American anti-censorship activist Lawrence A. Stanley and the European distributor of the American magazine Gayme. A conviction on this charge in the Netherlands carries a five year prison sentence. In the preliminary indictment, the specific accusations are that:

At the time of my arrest, my home was searched and all of my own photo archives, my photographic collection, and all my business records and address files were seized by the police, and are still being held by them. On the basis of the seized photography archive and collection, I am now being investigated for "molestation" of 2,000 "children" (a rough estimate of the number of individuals to be seen in the materials seized). Among the tactics evidently permitted in the police "investigation" have been, over the past weeks, the seizure of personal and business mail addressed to me.

In the six months since my arrest, my legal fees have run over HFl. 10,000, largely attributable to the cost of legal representation during the days of police interrogation in November, and the time my lawyer spent reviewing the 1,007 page preliminary indictment. As in each of the previous cases against me, I accept that it is my responsibility to try to pay for my legal defense myself. To date I have been able to cover about HFl. 4,000 of this. However, my financial reserves were exhausted by the costs of moving from Amsterdam to Rotterdam just before my arrest. And now with the loss of earned income caused by police interference in my business, I must appeal for financial help if I am to fight this case.

Again, this prosecution goes far beyond personal matters. Among the issues that are involved in this case are police entrapment, other possible police misconduct, the use of conspiracy statutes to persecute political dissidents, and once again, the legal definition of "pornography". We cannot collectively afford to allow these issues to go uncontested in the courts. The HFl. 6,000 (US$4,000) I now owe my lawyer must be cleared before I can go on to consider further legal steps in the defense.

I have set up a legal defense account, with the Postbank, number 5448155. Individuals who wish to contribute money toward the cost of my defense in The Netherlands and from within Europe can make contributions directly into that account. For those in North America, suggest either consulting with your bank about a *direct interbank transfer*, or use of a Western Union money transfer, after you have consulted with me. Until I can take legal action to stop the seizure of my mail, any attempt to mail a paper cheque is likely to end up in the hands of the "morals" police. I will be happy to discuss any questions you may have, by fax, although you should know that my fax line is certainly still tapped by the Dutch authorities. Please feel free to share this letter with others who may be interested and supportive.

It is precisely the effectiveness of voices like those of Mr. Stanley and myself that have led the police to take this action. We have been targeted because we have spoken out on behalf of others. I hope you will now acknowledge this by your support, and specifically, by your generous financial assistance in response to my legal costs.

Peace and Power,

Donald Mader

Curriculum vitae

Donald Mader is a photographer, photo critic, writer, translator and publisher. He was born in the United States and has been living in the Netherlands for the past 10 years. While still living in the US, he participated in the first two conferences of NAMBLA (the North American Man/Boy Love Association). His writings on boy-love/pedophilia include an introduction to the 1978 reissue of Men and Boys (America's first homosexual poetry anthology), "The Entimos Pais of Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10" in the first issue of Paidika, and articles and reviews in Pan. He is a regular contributor to the *NAMBLA Bulletin*, Gayme, *OK*, and other magazines. He contributed reviews of gay photography to Euros (Berlin). He was author of entries on gay photographers and co-author of the article on "pedophilia" in the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. He spoke out against threats to freedom of expression in evolving child "pornography" laws at the Arbeitsgemeinshaft Humane Sexualitataet (1993), the Arnhem Art Academy (1994), and the *Child Protectors And Their Clients* and Treatment Of Sex Offenders (Legal Section) intentional conferences (1995). Mr. Mader's own photos of boys were subject to two previous unsuccessful prosecutions, the first in 1987-1992, and again in 1994, when photographs from his shows were seized directly from the galleries by Amsterdam "morals" police. He was acquitted by the Dutch courts in both these previous cases.