Constitutional Council jostles use of federates in investigations

The institution censures the article allowing prosecutors to order these investigations “particularly at the private life” for any type of offense and without time limit.

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The cuffs are again on the harness. The Constitutional Council has censored, Friday, December 3, the conditions for recourse to this investigation tool during preliminary investigations. These requisitions to obtain the connection data of a person with his telephone or computer – without accessing the content of the exchanges – are massively used by the investigation services in all areas of delinquency, theft to the draws to terrorism, passing through economic and financial delinquency. Proof of this trivialization, the technical term of “fadet”, for detailed invoice, has entered the common language, transformed into faders.

In its decision, in response to a priority question of constitutionality (CQs) asked, the Constitutional Council observes that “the connection data includes data relating to the identification of persons, their location and their telephone and digital contacts as well as the online public communication services that they consult. Given their nature, their diversity and treatments that they can be subject to, the login data provide people in as well as, where applicable, on third parties, many and specific information, particularly attacks in their private life. “

Today, these requisitions may be ordered or authorized by the Prosecutor of the Republic for “any type of offense”. No emergency justification is necessary, and their appeal is bound by any time, note the nine members of the Council.

Two options for the legislator

The institution chaired by Laurent Fabius considers that the use of such intrusive means of survey should be surrounded by more guarantees than that provided by the prosecutor’s sole person. It considers that the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, on this point, are contrary to the Constitution. Consequence of Article 2 of the Declaration of Human Rights and the Citizen involving the right to respect for privacy, Article 34 of the Constitution imposes on the legislator to reconcile the objective of constitutional value of authors’ research. offense and the right to respect for private life. Which here has not been the case. On the other hand, the use of the federals in the context of the judicial information at the request of the investigating judge is not concerned by this decision.

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/Media reports.