The German judiciary may use the data from encrypted mobile phones from the provider Encrochat as long as it serves to investigate serious crimes.
The top criminal judges of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) decided this in principle at the beginning of March, as was announced in Karlsruhe on Friday.
A ban on the use of evidence does not exist "from any legal point of view".
(Az. 5 StR 457/21)
Encrochat was primarily used by criminals.
The service was considered unbreakable because of its complex encryption.
The police in the Netherlands and France had nevertheless managed to siphon off more than 20 million secret messages.
This also enabled numerous investigative successes in Germany.
The specific case involved a man who had been sentenced to five years in prison by the Hamburg district court for drug trafficking.
He had claimed that the data sent by the French authorities should not have been used.
The judges of the Leipzig branch of the BGH now rejected his revision.