False testimony in Sky ECC trial: police officers, fabricated evidence and €12 million in drugs
The Three-Member Court of Appeal for Serious Crimes issues a decision in a case where criminals and officers sit in the same dock.
Sky ECC trial: false testimony in a case of digital evidence and charges of fabricated evidence
The Three-Member Court of Appeal for Serious Crimes issued false testimony in one of the most complex criminal cases of recent years, with defendants combining convicted criminals and active officers of the Greek Police. The reported turnover of the alleged criminal organisation from drug trafficking amounts to €12,000,000. According to Documento, which has followed the case extensively, the case file was based exclusively on intercepted conversations from encrypted phones Sky ECC — with not a single sample of the narcotic substances allegedly distributed ever being found.
All evidence was drawn from data from the 2020–2021 period collected by foreign services via surveillance software, intercepting devices of the encrypted application on Greek territory. The legitimacy of this evidence was directly challenged by the defence, which denounced violations of fundamental rights. The matter now pends before the Court of Cassation, following the declaration of lack of jurisdiction by the Court of Appeal. In parallel, the French Court of Cassation has already referred a preliminary question to the European Court of Justice regarding the legitimacy of using such intercepted conversations throughout Europe.
The prosecutor's proposal: surprises for the police officers
During the hearing proceedings, the picture presented to the judges differed radically from that of the original indictment. The presiding prosecutor recommended the full acquittal of two defendant officers. The first is a former officer of Internal Affairs, accused of "burying" the case. The second, S.T., a former official of the Drug Prosecution Service and later of the Organised Crime unit, is involved in the case file not on the basis of the original anonymous denunciation of January 2024, but exclusively due to a subsequent anonymous telephone call — a fact which, according to what was proven in court, rendered the indictment against him full of holes.
For I.T., also an official of the Drug Prosecution Service, the prosecutor recommended conviction in accordance with the indictment, with recognition of mitigating circumstances. For the so-called "seller" of encrypted phones, discontinuation of prosecution was sought for entry into the organisation due to a final judgment, with a parallel proposal of guilt for distinguished drug distribution in separate acts. For Z.K. and his brother K.G., acquittal was sought from the charge of criminal organisation and downgrade to simple drug trafficking, with the addition for K.G. of direct participation in importation and transport.
Extremely serious, without any proposal for leniency, remains the indictment for S.P. — accused of directing a criminal organisation — and for his co-defendant with the initials K.G.
Digital alchemy: how anonymous traces acquired names
Documento revealed extensively what the investigation characterises as "digital alchemy": the way in which anonymous digital traces from Sky ECC conversations were attributed to specific natural persons. The files transmitted by the French authorities display only anonymous user codes. However, the official report of the Greek Police presents the name of S.P. as part of an encrypted message from September 2020.
According to what was revealed during the hearing proceedings, two officials of the Internal Affairs Service allegedly orchestrated a circular identification process to implicate S.P., already imprisoned for another drug case. They allegedly used an existing police officer as a "vehicle": they informed him in advance of the existence of a message naming S.P. and asked him merely to confirm the existence of the natural person. The police officer subsequently testified under oath before the same superiors who had guided him, "legitimising" the identification with their stamp.
For this practice, the defence has already filed a criminal report against the three police officers, triggering a new preliminary investigation.
The decision in a case without physical evidence
The judges of the Three-Member Court were called upon to rule in a case where the entire indictment is based on intercepted digital communications, without seized narcotic substances and with questioned legitimacy of evidence collection via a European Investigation Order. The case, as Documento characterises it, cast doubt on the credibility of the prosecutorial mechanisms themselves.
Source: Documento