‘Seizure of Electronic Data of Lawyers Sharing the Same Office is a Right Violation’

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The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has announced its ruling on three lawyers whose electronic data were seized for the purposes of criminal proceedings against another lawyer who shared their office.

Pronouncing its verdict yesterday (December 3), the ECtHR has concluded that the seizure of the electronic data of lawyers Mehmet Ali Kırdök, Mihriban Kırdök and Meral Hanbayat has violated their "right to respect for private and family life, the home and private correspondence" guaranteed by the Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The ECtHR has ruled that Turkey shall pay 3,500 Euro to each applicant in non-pecuniary damages and 3,000 Euro in total for court expenses.

Data of lawyers sharing the same office seized

In 2011, the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation "to detect and reveal the secret communication channels operating between Abdullah Öcalan and his former organization, PKK" As part of that investigation, a heavy penal court issued a warrant against a lawyer named Ü.S., who was arrested the next day at his home.

The police conducted searches at the office that Ü.S. shared with the applicants. The police made copies of all the data stored on the hard disk of the computer jointly used by all the lawyers, as well as a USB stick belonging to Hanbayat. A representative from the İstanbul Bar Association and Mihriban Kırdök, one of the applicant lawyers, were present during the search.

One day later, the lawyers appealed against the order issued by the heavy penal court, both as the representatives of Ü.S. and in their own names.

The lawyers particularly requested the restitution or destruction of their digital data, arguing that those data did not belong to Ü.S., that they were protected by legal professional secrecy and that they had been seized without any relevant order being issued.

Their objections rejected

The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office submitted observations to the effect that since the data in question had not yet been transcribed, it was impossible to ascertain their precise owners.

The heavy penal court dismissed the applicants' appeal on the ground that the impugned order had been issued in accordance with the law and the relevant procedure. As the domestic remedies exhausted, the three lawyers took the case to the ECtHR in 2012.

ECtHR has convicted Turkey

The ECtHR announced its judgement on three lawyers yesterday. The Court has concluded that the "unjustified seizure of electronic data" has violated the "lawyer-client professional secrecy."

"The Court found, in particular, that the seizure of the applicants' electronic data, which were protected by lawyer-client professional secrecy, and the refusal to return or destroy them had not corresponded to a pressing social need or been necessary in a democratic society", the ECtHR has indicated.

The Court has also referred to a "lack of sufficient procedural guarantees in the law as interpreted and applied by the judicial authorities".

Accordingly, the ECtHR has unanimously concluded that the applicants' "right to respect for private and family life, the home and private correspondence" guaranteed by the Article 8 of the ECHR has been violated, adding that "the complaints under Article 13 of the Convention covered the same ground as the complaint under Article 8 of the Convention."

Turkey will pay each lawyer 3,500 Euro in non-pecuniary damages and 3,000 Euro in total for court costs and expenses.

(HA/SD)