Basel appellate court rejects SkyECC evidence in drug trial
A court in Basel has ruled that encrypted chat data from the SkyECC app cannot be used as evidence in a drug prosecution.
Basel appellate court rejects SkyECC evidence in drug trial
An appellate court in Basel-Stadt has ruled in a drug case that encrypted messages from the SkyECC app cannot be used as evidence. This is reported by the news service swissinfo.ch.
The 50-year-old defendant is alleged to have been involved in both local dealing and international drug trafficking. Following the judicial ruling, the prosecution must restrict its charges to evidence gathered without the disputed chat records.
Both the prosecution and the defence had appealed against the first-instance judgment from January 2023. The prosecution had originally sought a prison sentence of more than 17 years and described the man as a key figure in worldwide drug trafficking.
The criminal court, however, did not accept this assessment and imposed a sentence of ten years and nine months. The conviction was based primarily on the sale of only 4.2 kilograms of cocaine – far short of the alleged nine tonnes.
The decision could have implications for further ongoing proceedings that rely on intercepted SkyECC communications.
Source: swissinfo.ch