San Bernardino Survivor’s Husband Writes Powerful Letter To Judge Supporting Apple

The husband of one of the survivors of the San Bernardino attacks that killed 14 and seriously wounded over 20 others has written a letter to Judge Sheri Pym, who ordered Apple to help the FBI unlock one of the terrorists’ iPhones, to express his support for Apple. Salihin Kondoker, whose wife Anies survived after being shot three times in the attack, states that he believes forcing Apple to do so will invite governments all over the world to abuse the technology and spy on innocent people, reports BuzzFeed.

In the letter, filed as a friend-of-the-court brief, Kondoker says his privacy concerns and stance are bolstered by the fact that he doesn’t believe the FBI will get any useful information from the phone—something FBI director James Comey has said is a possibility.

“In my opinion it is unlikely there is any valuable information on this phone,” Kondoker wrote. “This was a work phone. My wife also had an iPhone issued by the county and she did not use it for any personal communication. San Bernardino is one of the largest counties in the country. They can track the phone on GPS in case they needed to determine where people were. Second, both the iCloud account and carrier account were controlled by the county so they could track any communications. This was common knowledge among my wife and other employees.

“Why then would someone store vital contacts related to an attack on a phone they knew the county had access to? [The attackers, Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik] destroyed their personal phones after the attack. And I believe they did that for a reason.”

Kondoker says he didn’t come to his support of Apple immediately. “When I first learned Apple was opposing the order I was frustrated that it would be yet another roadblock. But as I read more about their case, I have come to understand their fight is for something much bigger than one phone,” he wrote.

He also notes that all the attention surrounding Apple’s role in the ongoing investigation is distracting from the real matter at hand: “In the wake of this terrible attack, I believe strongly we need stronger gun laws,” he wrote. “It was guns that killed innocent people, not technology.”

In the end, Kondoker says, “America should be proud of Apple. Proud that it is an American company and we should protect them and not try to tear them down. I support them in this case and I hope the court will too.”

Apple executives will appear in front of a Congressional hearing today to discuss laws on encryption and the San Bernardino case.

The History of Apple (In Three Minutes):