Croatia: SKY ECC messages ruled admissible evidence, USKOK indicts 25 people for drug smuggling
A higher criminal court in Croatia has confirmed that SKY ECC communications are lawful evidence. USKOK has filed charges against Nenad Petrak and 24 co-defendants for smuggling cocaine, marijuana and hashish.
Higher criminal court confirms: SKY ECC messages lawful evidence in criminal proceedings
The Higher Criminal Court in Croatia has delivered a final and binding decision confirming that communications via the encrypted SKY ECC application are lawful evidence that can be used in domestic judicial proceedings, according to vijesti.me.
The ruling confirmed a previous decision made by an investigating judge at the County Court in Split, who concluded in February of this year that evidence collected by USKOK — based on analysis of communications between members of an international criminal organisation led by arrested Zagreb construction entrepreneur Nenad Petrak — was collected lawfully. Petrak, who was arrested in Turkey at the end of last year and subsequently extradited to Croatian authorities, was closely connected with the Montenegrin Kavač clan.
First final ruling in the region
As reported by Slobodna Dalmacija, this ruling finally provides a legal answer to a question that has troubled many persons held behind bars as members of various criminal organisations, who were arrested following analysis of communications conducted via the SKY ECC application.
"Everyone had hoped that the evidence which USKOK collected through analysis of communications via the encrypted SKY ECC application, and which was obtained through European investigation orders from French authorities, would be declared unlawful," Slobodna Dalmacija writes.
This is the first final ruling in the countries of the region confirming SKY communications as lawful evidence. Its significance is further underscored by the fact that the European Court of Justice at the end of April of this year delivered a decision on the use of the SKY application in judicial proceedings — rejecting the possibility of using data from encrypted applications if they are not corroborated by other evidence.
The Supreme State Prosecutor's Office of Montenegro, several days after that European court decision, announced that the decision does not call into question the validity and lawfulness of SKY communications as evidence, but rather that the ruling interprets the provisions of Directive 14/41, which regulates the application of the European investigation order in EU member states.
Charges against 25 people: at least 2.3 tonnes of drugs
Shortly after the final ruling, USKOK last week filed charges with the County Court in Split against the criminal organisation of Nenad Petrak, along with 24 other Croatian citizens. The charges are largely based on hacked, encoded SKY conversations between members of Petrak's group, which are now lawful evidence.
The defendants are charged with, from 25 November 2019 to 3 February 2023, in the territory of Croatia, Montenegro, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia and Sierra Leone, through joint action permanently acquiring large quantities of cocaine, marijuana and hashish and smuggling, transporting and selling them in EU member states.
According to the charges, Petrak's group successfully resold at least 342.8 kilograms of cocaine valued at 14.2 million euros, 450 kilograms of marijuana and 77 kilograms of hashish.
Petrak and connection to Kavač clan
Nenad Petrak is currently held in Split prison in Bilice. The charges accuse him, amongst other things, of purchasing large quantities of marijuana in Montenegro, as well as ordering four members of the criminal organisation to collect, store and sell drugs to customers.
In one of the intercepted SKY messages, Petrak wrote to an interlocutor with the username ESJTJ5 — whom investigators suspect is defendant Vlad Brkić from Zagreb — "The Montenegrins are hard to negotiate with, so we all need to stick to the plan."
USKOK states that the term "Montenegrins" refers to members of the Kavač clan, whose leader is Radoje Zvicer — a person who has been unsuccessfully sought through Interpol for years.
"Police and USKOK have reconstructed the conversations, and investigators suspect that the 'guy from Split' is Brkić, while 'Yellow', on the other hand, is Kavač clan leader Radoje Zvicer," Croatian media report.
Source: vijesti.me