"The Cour de Cassation has asked the European Court of Justice to rule whether French law is in line with European law. It comes after the French courts refused the right of a German citizen to appeal against the lawfulness of the French hacking operation in the French courts. The decision will have "significant consequences" for legal proceedings in the European Union against individuals who are charged with criminal offences based on evidence obtained by French police from hacking the Sky ECC and EncroChat encrypted phone networks."
"French, Belgian and Dutch police infiltrated servers belonging to Sky ECC, the world's largest cryptophone network, and decrypted millions of messages between June 2019 and March 2021, leading to the arrest of drug gangs across Europe. French and Dutch police also harvested messages from tens of thousands of EncroChat cryptophone users after police infiltrated the network's servers in a novel hacking operation in 2020. A three-year investigation led to 6,500 arrests of organised crime and drug groups worldwide and the seizure of nearly €900m in cash and assets."
"A coalition of defence lawyers, known as the Joint Defence Team, are challenging the legality of the French hacking operation. They argue that France breached European law by obtaining millions of encrypted messages from Sky ECC and EncroChat without grounds for suspicion against the individuals targeted. They also argue that the French failed to notify other EU states in advance about when they intercepted messages from phones outside of French territory, denying other EU member states the right to object to the operation."
The French Cour de Cassation has referred a question to the European Court of Justice on whether French law aligns with EU law after French courts denied a German citizen the right to contest the lawfulness of a French hacking operation. The referral could affect prosecutions across the EU that rely on evidence from hacking of the Sky ECC and EncroChat encrypted networks. French, Belgian and Dutch police infiltrated and decrypted millions of messages, resulting in thousands of arrests and nearly €900m seized. Defence lawyers assert the operations breached EU law and that member states were not properly notified.
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