Sky ECC: Norway’s highest court refused appeals over access to evidence
The Norwegian Supreme Court’s appeals selection committee refused three appeals in HR-2024-647-U on 8 April 2024. The convicted defendants challenged Sky ECC evidence because they could not inspect all the underlying information.
The three appealed a Borgarting judgment of 21 December 2023, case 23-104594AST-BORG/01. They argued that access only to the decrypted material supplied to Norwegian prosecutors was insufficient and did not fulfil the right to inspect all information gathered.
The appeal court had found that all decrypted material linked to Sky IDs relevant to Norway had been sent to Kripos. Nothing indicated that material linked to the accounts in this case had been withheld. It considered that Norwegian police possessed no more material than the defence. Any other relevant messages in the international investigation database therefore concerned the weight of the evidence, rather than requiring exclusion of the supplied material.
The effect of lacking access to the complete chain of evidence likewise required a concrete assessment of evidential weight. The Supreme Court committee found no error of law in this approach and no other reason for the highest court to hear the case. It unanimously refused leave for all three appeals.
