ECHR rules Bosnia law lacks safeguards to protect data covered by legal professional privilege – JURIST
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Tuesday that Bosnia violated the European Convention on Human Rights by its insufficient data protection laws with regard to legal professional privilege. The decision followed a lawyer’s complaint that his phone data had been indiscriminately collected and used in a criminal trial against him.
The applicant, Sanel Nezirić, faced a criminal investigation on suspicion of criminal association and abuse of office. On these grounds, the Bosnian authorities seized his phone, transferred its complete data onto a DVD and sifted through his complete call history and messages, using the phone numbers of other suspects as parameters. Neither the applicant nor a member of the Bar Association were present at the point when these measures were carried out. The authorities subsequently submitted all of the evidence at trial, which was appealed to by Nezirić, however, the national court’s previous decision remained upheld.
Having exhausted all domestic remedies, Nezirić filed a complaint with the ECHR.
In its decision, the Court unanimously found a violation of Article 8 of the Convention, which protects the right to privacy and family life, particularly the right to respect for correspondence in this case. The interference with the right to correspondence was based on Bosnian criminal procedural law, specifically Article 51 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Bar Association Act. Although Bosnia referred to some procedural safeguards, such as the obligation of presence of a member of the Bar association in the case of a search conducted in a lawyer’s office, these were not enforced in Nezirić’s case, as the search occurred without such an official present. Therefore, the Court concluded that there were insufficient practical measures to protect lawyer-client confidentiality during such searches.
