Jaanuaris korruptsioonikahtlustuse saanud Kersti Kracht, kes sai hiljuti kohtus väikese vahevõidu riigiprokuratuuri ja kaitsepolitseiameti üle, nõuab nüüd riigi peaprokuröri Andres Parmase suhtes distsiplinaarmenetluse alustamist.
Lawyers have hit out at a prosecutor s office practice of issuing authorizations for the use of phone and other communications logs and data in criminal proceedings, despite what they say is a clear statement from European Court of Justice (ECJ) to the effect that only courts of law should give permission for issuing data.
Even Estonia s own Supreme Court has been clear in highlighting that domestic law may not impede the full functioning of EU law, the lawyers say.
The prosecutor s office and district prosecutors direct Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) investigations, and also, as in other jurisdictions, prosecute criminal cases in the courts.
A European Court of Justice preliminary ruling from Tuesday could have a huge effect on the Estonian judicial system. Masses of evidence might prove inadmissible in thousands of criminal processes, including the major trials of Hirv and Gammer and Porto Franco where communications data has been used as evidence and basis for collecting evidence.
The European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday that recent criminal practice in Estonia is not in accordance with EU law in several aspects. Estonia has for years obligated all mobile services operators to record everyone s cell phone data – virtually everything except content of calls.
Who called who, when, how often and using which devices, as well as the location of the person placing the call and the recipient. Additional data, such as the location of owners of devices, who they met etc. has also been recorded. The law obligates service providers to store the data for a period of one year.