Enlarge image
Related to Enchrochats: Confiscated banknotes and coins in Krefeld
Photo: Police Krefeld / dpa
Suspected criminals from the field of organized crime had communicated across Europe via the Encrochat network.
They planned the most serious crimes.
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe has now ruled that the data from the Encrochat software used in Germany can be used as evidence if it is used to investigate serious crimes.
French investigative measures would have to be evaluated according to French law, the BGH explained.
France had transmitted corresponding data to Germany.
It is not decisive whether a measure taken in France under French law could also have been ordered in Germany, the BGH further explained.
The specific case concerned a convicted drug dealer from Hamburg, in whose proceedings messages sent via Encrochat had served as evidence.
His revision has now been discarded.
French and Dutch investigators, in cooperation with the EU authorities Europol and Eurojust, succeeded in hacking the program in 2020.
This enabled the cell phones of tens of thousands of suspected criminals to be monitored.
As a result of the decryption, thousands of criminal proceedings have already been initiated in Germany.
kim/AFP