Ostro trial in Catanzaro: judge orders verification of encrypted SkyECC chats
For the first time in Italy, a judge accepts defensive requests concerning SkyECC data and European Investigation Orders in a major mafia trial.
SkyECC chats in major mafia trial: Catanzaro judge orders verification
The Catanzaro Court has marked a possible turning point in Italian case law on the use of encrypted chats in criminal investigations. On 19 January last, during a hearing in the Ostro trial — which stemmed from an operation that had led to the capture of a dangerous fugitive and subsequently resulted in proceedings for mafia-type association — the judge for the preliminary hearing accepted, for the first time in Italy, the requests presented by the defence regarding SkyECC data and European Investigation Orders (EIOs), as reported by the Corriere della Calabria.
The requests were advanced by lawyers Vincenzo Sorgiovanni, Mauro Ruga, Alessandro Bavaro and Giuseppe Gervasi. The lawyers requested the freezing of investigative material collected in France through an EIO, to prevent further transformations or transfers of evidentiary data. They also requested verification of the existence of a decision to recognise or execute the EIO by the French authorities against the defendants.
Depending on the response from the French authorities, opposite scenarios could emerge. If the documents revealed the existence of an investigation against the defendants in France, these could activate a jurisdictional remedy in that country and obtain the suspension of the French proceeding, by virtue of a preliminary ruling question already submitted to the Court of Justice of the European Union in September 2025.
If, conversely, no investigation were found to have been opened in France, the defendants would not have the possibility of challenging the EIO in the executing state. This outcome could constitute a violation of the fundamental principles enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the European Convention on Human Rights — with the consequent inadmissibility of the acts in Italy, on the model of what was already established by the European Court of Justice in the Encrochat case.
Source: Corriere della Calabria