Winterthur stabber: MPC does not have access to his devices
Keystone-SDA
The Swiss Attorney General’s Office still has no access to the electronic devices of the 31-year-old Turkish-Swiss man accused of wounding three people in Winterthur with a knife. The reason is that the suspect objects to the search of his laptop and mobile phone.
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The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (MPC) has applied to the coercive measures court for release of the phone and is awaiting the decision, federal prosecutor Stefan Blätter said in an interviewExternal link with the NZZamSonntag.
“At the moment we cannot verify with whom he communicated before the fact or with whom he had contact and what he wrote,” Blätter said. Until it is possible to do so, it will not be possible to verify, on the basis of the seized devices, any connections to a network of people.
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There are “of course other tools we use, but nowadays electronic devices are crucial evidence”. Sealing is a real problem today. “We have to find solutions to manage it in the age of digitisation,” said Blättler.
Sealing was introduced at a time when all criminal proceedings were still conducted analogue. The idea behind it is that documents and data are not used in criminal proceedings that, for instance, fall under professional secrecy or are of a very personal nature and have nothing to do with the criminal proceedings.
Reversing the procedure
According to Blättler, the MPC recently conducted a five-year sealing procedure. But in the case of the Winterthur stabbing “fortunately we seem to be rather in a static situation”… “But just imagine if we were still actively looking for people now. For example, accomplices who might also be prone to violence – and we cannot analyse the offender’s data,” Blättler continued.
To improve the situation, according to the federal prosecutor, “we would probably have to reverse the process”. Investigators and prosecutors should be able to examine the seized data immediately. This would not change the fact that, for example, lawyers’ correspondence cannot be used or seized. Furthermore, an exemption would be urgently needed in cases where there is imminent danger or public safety is threatened.
In preventive detention
The 31-year-old man, an Islamist with a criminal record, is currently in pre-trial detention. On Thursday, May 28, the man hurled himself at passers-by at Winterthur station, injuring three men, one of them seriously. The previous day he was still in a psychiatric clinic.
A criminal investigation was opened against him for attempted multiple murder and participation in or support of a terrorist organisation.
Translated from Italian by AI/jdp
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