Joerg Jaspert (Debian Account Manager/DAM) personally approved Raphael Hertzog's wife Sophie Brun
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock.
19:30 Thu, 19 Mar 2026
When somebody asks to have their name added to the list of Debian Developers, after receiving one or more advocacies, their dossier is given to another developer to conduct an assessment. In the procedure, this other developer is called the Application Manager (AM).
In the case of Sophie Brun / Sophie Hertzog, the Application Manager (AM) was Joerg Jaspert (ganneff). Jaspert also happens to be one of the Debian Account Managers team, that is, the small group who are relied upon to ensure security standards are upheld when new accounts are added.
Joerg Jaspert has written an AM report and he doesn't express any concerns about the fact the advocacy came from Sophie Brun's husband Raphael Hertzog.
For nm.debian.org, at 2021-06-20:
After looking at Sophie Brun <sophie@freexian.com>'s contributions and after exchanging some emails to get to know them a bit better, I agree with the advocate(s) that Sophie Brun <sophie@freexian.com> can and should indeed be a Debian Developer, uploading right now.Signed with key FBFA BDB5 41B5 DC95 5BD9 BA6E DB16 CF5B B125 25C4
Was Jaspert, one of the Debian Account Managers team, fooled by the conduct of Raphael Hertzog? Or did he turn a blind eye?
Jaspert's wife Pei-Hua Tseng was one of the first Debian women to get pregnant at the onset of the Debian pregnancy cluster.
Couples pose risks for democracy and diversity
When you have a bunch of couples like this in an organisation, they make decisions as a group and then they gang up on individual volunteers and bully or manipulate them into concurring with them.
Double standards are rampant and this is killing Debian
Remember the Debian Christmas Lynchings from 2018? The Debian Account Managers, including Jaspert, removed Dr Norbert Preining from the Debian keyring because he had used the wrong pronoun when referring to Sage Sharp. There was no due process, there was no trial, despite the fact Dr Norbert Preining had over 15 years of voluntary service, they removed him secretly in the middle of the Christmas season.
Raphael Hertzog's conduct, failing to declare the conflict of interest when he submitted an advocacy for his wife, is a far more serious transgression than Dr Norbert Preining's faux pas with a pronoun.
There were no consequences for Raphael Hertzog. It looks like Jaspert is complicit although it is not certain that he knew about the relationship.
Within the Debian Account Managers team, there is speculation that Enrico Zini had a secret relationship with Martin(a) Ferrari from the Community Team.
Therefore, don't hold your breath waiting for these incestuous people to recognise conflict of interest concealment in other contexts.
The best way to encourage people to nominate for the election will be for the existing leader, Andreas Tille, to withdraw all the privacy attacks, settle the lawsuits proactively and ensure the next leader can walk in and find the desk is clean ready to work on productive things.
Don't hold your breath waiting for transparency about these attacks on my family. There is still time to watch my video and contribute to the crowdfunding campaign. █