Justice is going through turbulent times. And this is currently influencing the discussion about the planned new regulations for securing data carriers such as laptops or mobile phones.
Firstly, Minister Alma Zadic (Greens) has agreed to the short evaluation period of two weeks. Now, after a wave of outrage from professional representatives of judges and prosecutors, she wants to develop a proposal in the coming weeks and extend the deadline for the draft to six weeks.
It delays unnecessarily, which in turn causes the outrage of coalition partner ÖVP: after all, the bill was adopted in the Justice Committee with the votes of the Greens.
What will end up on the criminal record?
In concrete terms, it concerns the violation of fundamental rights during house searches. Experts have been complaining for years that personal rights are not sufficiently protected in Austria, which could lead to violations of the European Convention on Human Rights.
For example, if, according to experts, all data from mobile phones or hard drives is seized by an authority and included in the criminal record. This also includes purely private photos or personal documents, which can then end up in parliamentary investigation committees as abstractly relevant content. Even if they have no criminal relevance. This must now be repaired with the new law.
Regardless of the new legislative initiative, this criminal relevance would in fact already be regulated in the Code of Criminal Procedure today: only what is necessary for the criminal proceedings may be included in the file. There is also case law from the Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, the Constitutional Court was required to order a new legislative provision by 1 January 2025 at the latest due to the legal violations.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
