Operation Venetic has been challenged in court, resulting in a large drug bust and the foiling of many European criminal organisations. This raises questions: why was Operation Venetic challenged? What were the benefits of doing so?
Well, the answer is fairly simple, while the leaking of such messages from the EncroChat forums and servers has led to what seems to be a positive change, there has been much debate on whether the police have obtained this information illegally.
Obtaining information by intercepting messages between two parties is normally considered illegal under most circumstances which has encouraged the debate to rage on through the trails.
Throughout this blog post, we are going to be discussing why many EncroChat cases are being disputed during the trials and what the EncroChat legal challenge means for you.
The Hacking of EncroChat
In late 2020, police in the UK made a gigantic breakthrough in stopping many criminal organisations in Europe by hacking into the servers of EncroChat and intercepting messages between people to be used in court as evidence.
EncroChat was a company that supplied its customers with encrypted phones which would keep them safe from hackers but in turn locks out law enforcement, making people who use these devices automatic targets for suspicion among police.
While these devices were not illegal to own, or even use for that matter, people using them would still attract attention from law enforcement even if their intentions were completely innocent.
The EncroChat hack, otherwise known as Operation Venetic, has meant that all of these people have had their privacy completely interfered with and has led to many people being worried about the safety of their data.
At the time in which the servers were breached by law enforcement, EncroChat had thousands of people that were subscribing to their service and all of which had their right to privacy breached entirely in the police’s pursuit to catch these criminals.
Was Operation Venetic Legal?
While there have been many people affected by the recent ongoings with Operation Venetic, there have been just as many people disputing the EncroChat evidence as admissible in court because these messages were obtained via interception and may be considered illegally obtained.
The legality of the operation came before the court of appeal with the potential issues with this evidence and they were able to cite section 56 of the Investigatory Powers Act to show that any material obtained via interception.
While this sounds relatively simple, the opposition has argued that there are other sections of the same law that state otherwise.
For example, there have been quotes in the Act stating that it “does not prohibit disclosure of the content of any communication, or any secondary data obtained from a communication, if the interception of that communication was lawful by (a) sections 6(1)(c) and 44 to 52.”
These stated sections in the above quote claim that evidence obtained via interference is considered lawful if they are found “in the case of communication stored in or by a telecommunication system”
EncroChat Defence Lawyers
If you have been caught up in the investigations into the EncroChat hacking operation and are worried about being questioned or arrested based on allegations from Operation Venetic, then you’ll need a defence lawyer that can help you ward off these charges entirely.
EncroChat Solicitors have a team of highly skilled lawyers that are more than willing to help you with your EncroChat problems. You can be assured that our experienced team will be able to help you in every way they possibly can to have these charges dropped.
Many people during the operation have been caught up in the many allegations being thrown at them even though they may have never done anything wrong while using the program, this has been the root of many issues during the operation.
Every person is entitled to legal defence, which is why you should enlist the help of one of our specialists to ensure that, when the time comes, you will have all the tools and support necessary to bypass any of the troubles you would have otherwise come across.
Our services ensure that every one of our clients is treated as their person, we never look at your case as just another client. We aim to make our clients feel as comfortable as possible while they are under our care meaning that we value each case that we undertake.
This allows us to understand the ins and outs of the entire situation at hand and give the best service that we possibly can depending upon the circumstances.
Conclusion
To conclude, there are plenty of reasons why many EncroChat cases are being challenged during their trials and a lot of it boils down to how the police have intercepted the encrypted messages and whether this was lawful or not.
In most cases, this has been deemed as such and has led to hundreds if not thousands of arrests and has largely put a stop to many different drug operations in and across Europe showing the great success of the operation.
While this is the case, many people have been caught up amid this massive crime bust despite being completely innocent, this makes having the correct defence lawyers on your side seem like a complete necessity.
If you do have any questions or queries about EncroChat, Operation Venetic or perhaps what can be done in your personal case to help defend yourself in a court of law, please feel free to get in touch with us at 0330 133 6541 or email us at contact@encrochatsolicitors.com and we will be more than happy to assist you in any way we can.
