THIRD SECTION
CASE OF SÄRGAVA v. ESTONIA
(Application no. 698/19)
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
Art 8 • Correspondence • Lack of sufficient procedural safeguards to protect privileged data during the seizure and subsequent examination of a lawyer’s laptop and mobile telephone • Interference not in accordance with the law
 
STRASBOURG
16 November 2021
 
 
FINAL
 
16/02/2022
 
 
This judgment has become final under Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Särgava v. Estonia,
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:
 Georges Ravarani, President,
 Georgios A. Serghides,
 Dmitry Dedov,
 Darian Pavli,
 Peeter Roosma,
 Anja Seibert-Fohr,
 Andreas Zünd, judges,
and Milan Blaško, Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application (no. 698/19) against the Republic of Estonia lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by an Estonian national, Mr Viktor Särgava (“the applicant”), on 17 December 2018;
the decision to give notice to the Estonian Government (“the Government”) of the complaint under Article 8 of the Convention concerning the seizure and examination of the applicant’s (a lawyer’s) laptop and mobile telephone;
the parties’ observations;
the decision to uphold the Government’s objection to examination of the application by a Committee;
Having deliberated in private on 12 October 2021,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
INTRODUCTION
1. The main issue in the present case is whether the domestic law was sufficiently clear and afforded the requisite safeguards for the protection of legal professional privilege in the event of the seizure and subsequent examination of a lawyer’s laptop and mobile telephone. THE FACTS
2. The applicant was born in 1982 and lives in Tallinn. He was represented by Mr T. Lindma, a lawyer practising in Tallinn. 3. The Government were represented by their Agent, Ms M. Kuurberg, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 4. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. The search and seizure
5. The applicant is a lawyer (advokaat) and a partner in a law firm. 6. The Government asserted that the applicant also worked as an entrepreneur alongside his professional activity as a lawyer. He had been a member of the board and/or a shareholder in a number of companies. He had, inter alia, been a shareholder in company S, initially as a natural person and later through another company L. The Government added that according to the criminal suspicion those companies had been under the control of the leaders of a criminal organisation and were linked to the suspicion raised against the applicant. 7. On 26 October 2016 the Police and Border Guard Board (hereafter “the PBGB”) initiated criminal proceedings against an alleged criminal organisation and concerning money laundering. The applicant was suspected, inter alia, of belonging to a criminal organisation. According to the suspicion, the applicant’s role, as someone with a legal background, was to manage the companies linked to the criminal organisation, to draw up the relevant documents and to ensure that the related transactions were legally correct. He was also suspected, in relation to company S, of using a counterfeit document and providing aid in an attempt to cause insolvency. 8. On 12 February 2018, in the course of the aforementioned proceedings and at the request of the State Prosecutor, the preliminary investigation judge (eeluurimiskohtunik) of the Harju County Court authorised a search of the applicant’s law firm and a search of his home and vehicles, and also ordered the applicant’s detention as a suspect for forty-eight hours. The present application concerns the items seized during the search of the applicant’s home and car. 9. The State Prosecutor, in the request to authorise a search of the applicant’s home and vehicles, noted that the applicant had allegedly been involved in drawing up documents related to criminal activities. The request entailed a detailed description of the criminal activities of which the applicant was suspected. Among other aspects, it mentioned that the applicant was a shareholder in company S. The State Prosecutor asked the court to authorise a search in order to secure relevant information on communications and transactions between the members of the criminal organisation in hard copy as well as in electronic form. The request referred to various data carriers (andmekandjad) such as USB sticks, memory cards, hard drives, and also electronic devices, such as computers and telephones. The State Prosecutor first specifically listed the companies (including the company S), the natural persons and circumstances in relation to which information was sought, adding that “in addition to the aforementioned material, other documents, correspondence and items that might entail evidentiary information in the criminal case” would also be sought. The State Prosecutor pointed out that having regard to material gathered hitherto in the criminal proceedings and to general criminological information, there were grounds to believe that the information wanted might be found at the applicant’s home and vehicles. The State Prosecutor admitted that in addition to the information relevant to the criminal proceedings, the applicant might have information that related to his professional activities as a lawyer and that would thus not be of relevance to the criminal proceedings. 10. The preliminary investigation judge authorised the search in the extent requested by the State Prosecutor by way of endorsement (pealdis, see paragraph 31 below). In the case at hand this meant that no separate court decision was drawn up, but the judge’s authorisation was inserted in the “resolution” section of a computer programme used for signing documents digitally. The authorisation stated “Under Article 91 of the Code of Criminal Procedure the preliminary investigation judge authorises a conduct of a search in Viktor Särgava’s residence on address X, as well as in its auxiliary buildings and rooms and in cars Y and Z used by Viktor Särgava in order to find the objects mentioned in the prosecutor’s request.”
11. On the morning of 13 February 2018 the applicant was detained and his mobile telephone was seized from his car. A detention report was drawn up. It was noted in the report that the seized mobile telephone had been placed in an antistatic bag and sealed by a numbered security sticker. The applicant had been informed that, if necessary, information concerning his social media accounts, correspondence and cloud storage could be downloaded from the Internet. The applicant noted that he had read (tutvunud) the report and signed it. He did not add any remarks or comments concerning the procedural measures related to his detention. 12. On the same day a search was carried out in the applicant’s home. His wife and a lawyer appointed by the applicant were present during the search, while the applicant himself attended the search taking place in his law firm (see paragraph 13 below). The applicant conducted a telephone conversation with his lawyer during the search. The applicant’s wife stated that in her view the objects sought were not to be found in their home, adding that her husband did not normally take work home. As a result of the search, among other objects, a laptop was found and seized. The applicant’s wife pointed out that both she and her husband used the laptop. A search report was drawn up, describing the conduct of the search and the items found and seized. According to the report, the laptop was placed in a numbered “security bag” (turvakott). In the “remarks” section of the report, the applicant’s wife mentioned that she had read the report and had no comments. Both the applicant’s lawyer and his wife signed the search report. 13. In parallel to the search in the applicant’s home a search was also conducted of his office at his law firm. The applicant was present during the search. In response to the proposal to hand over the searched objects, the applicant noted that his mobile telephone had already been seized and that all the electronic documents were in his computer which had been sent to maintenance. He stated that he did not wish to reveal the exact whereabouts of the computer as it contained information on criminal proceedings relating to his various clients. During the search the applicant telephoned his lawyer, who was present at the search taking place in the applicant’s home. Nothing was seized from his office. The applicant signed the search report and stated that he did not have any remarks or comments about the conduct of the search. 14. On the afternoon of 13 February 2018 the applicant was questioned as a suspect. He stated that he had provided legal counselling to other suspects in the criminal case as well as to their respective companies as part of his professional activities. He also mentioned that the business activities relating to a specific company, S, in which he was a shareholder, did not concern his professional activities as a lawyer. He pointed out that his “home computer” would contain documents concerning that company S. 15. Between 13 and 19 February 2018 the PBGB copied the full content of the applicant’s mobile telephone and the hard drive of his laptop on to an external hard drive (mirror-image copies). An examination report (vaatlusprotokoll), signed by two officers, was drawn up. According to the report the examiner had verified that the bags in which the items had been placed had not been previously opened. The copies were to be kept at the data storage facility of the PBGB. The mobile telephone was returned to the applicant on 14 February 2018 and the laptop on 23 February 2018. 16. On 14 February 2018 the PBGB asked the applicant’s law firm to provide them with bills for the services that the law firm had provided to two suspects in the criminal case as well as to the companies related to them. On 27 March 2018 the law firm replied that they could confirm having concluded legal counselling contracts (õigusabileping) with the said persons, observing that the applicant was one of the persons providing legal services. Referring to the duty of confidentiality, they provided no further information on the services. The subsequent domestic proceedings
17. On 7 March 2018 the applicant lodged an application with the PBGB, explaining that the seized mobile telephone and laptop belonged to his law firm and were used for the provision of legal services. He asked the PBGB not to examine the mobile telephone and laptop, not to use material copied from them as evidence in the criminal proceedings and to delete all the data that might have been copied. 18. In its reply of 21 March 2018, the PBGB explained that the fact that the applicant had used his laptop for providing legal services as a lawyer as well as for business activities outside his profession as a lawyer did not mean that the guarantees provided in section 43(3) of the Bar Association Act (advokatuuriseadus; see paragraph 38 below) covered the data carrier in its entirety. In doing so the applicant had knowingly created a situation whereby the data contained therein would be seized as a result of a search. The aim of the search of the applicant’s home had not been to access and seize data relating to the applicant’s professional activities as a lawyer, but to obtain information concerning his activities in company S. The PBGB added that the data on the laptop and mobile telephone had been copied and would be searched on the basis of keywords. Other files with no evidentiary value would not be accessed. 19. On 27 March 2018 the applicant lodged a complaint with the Office of the Prosecutor General. Referring to section 43(3) of the Bar Association Act he requested that the seizure and other procedural actions taken in relation to the mobile telephone and laptop be declared unlawful, and that any information obtained from these data carriers be not used in evidence in any criminal proceedings and be deleted. 20. On 26 April 2018 the State Prosecutor dismissed the complaint, noting that the search and seizure had been carried out in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure (kriminaalmenetluse seadustik – hereafter “the CCrP”). The search authorisations had covered not only the seizure of data carriers but also their subsequent examination. The State Prosecutor referred to section 5(4) of the Code of Ethics of the Bar Association, as well as to section 44(1)(4) of the Bar Association Act (separation of data carriers concerning the provision of legal services and preventing access to data carriers; see paragraphs 41-42 below). He added, referring to section 44(1)(1) of the Bar Association Act (see paragraph 40 below), that in the event that the data carriers contained information relevant to the lawyer’s unlawful activities, they would not benefit from the inviolability guarantee of section 43(3) of the same act. 21. On 5 May 2018 the applicant lodged a further appeal referring to the absolute nature of the requirement set out in section 43(3) of the Bar Association Act regardless of whether the relevant data carriers included information unrelated to the provision of legal services, whether anyone else had had access to them or whether the lawyer had complied with section 44(1)(4) of the Bar Association Act. He added that he had provided legal services to company S as part of his professional activity as a lawyer. He noted also that the possible keywords could equally be found in documents that were not related to the criminal investigation. The applicant argued that the inviolability rule would lose all its meaning if its application depended on the prosecution’s assumptions about whether or not the data carriers contained information referring to the lawyer’s unlawful activities. 22. On 4 June 2018 the Chief State Prosecutor dismissed the appeal, referring, inter alia, to a decision of the Tallinn Court of Appeal to the effect that the inviolability of lawyer’s data carriers was not absolute in situations where the said lawyer had been directly involved in committing an offence (see paragraph 47 below). In the instant case the applicant had been declared a suspect. The decision also referred to the Supreme Court judgment in case 3-1-1-22-10 (see paragraph 48 below). 23. The applicant’s further appeal was dismissed by the Harju County Court on 6 July 2018. The court disagreed that the inviolability of lawyers’ data carriers was absolute, and noted that it applied only in so far that the lawyer did not commit an offence in the framework of providing legal services. The court also noted that it was reasonable to expect that a lawyer would systematise the information on his electronic data carriers so as to differentiate documents relating to one client from those relating to another. The court suggested that the lawyer whose data carriers were being examined in the proceedings could submit an application to attend such an examination. No appeal lay with the decision. 24. Between 19 and 26 July 2018 the content of the applicant’s mobile telephone and laptop were examined on the basis of thirty keywords. An examination report (vaatlusprotokoll) was drawn up and signed by two officers. The keywords included the names of some of the other suspects, names of companies as well as more generic terms such as “financial year” (majandusaasta) and “credit line” (krediidiliin). A visual search was carried out of the applicant’s SMS messages. The report notes that “e-mails, SMS messages, documents and photos” were printed out, and they have been numbered and annexed to the report. The copies of the files examined were to be kept at the PBGB data storage facility. The applicant had not asked to be present during the examination. 25. On 23 November 2018 the pre-trial proceedings were completed and the material in the criminal file was handed to the applicant for examination. He was given until 18 January 2019 to submit any requests (see paragraph 33 below). The applicant did not lodge any requests concerning the seizure of the laptop and mobile telephone or their subsequent examination. 26. The applicant was committed for trial on 7 February 2019 on charges of being a member of a criminal organisation and of using forged documents. 27. At the hearing in Harju County Court on 5 March 2019, the applicant’s representative argued that the search and the subsequent examination of the applicant’s data carriers had been unlawful and that the evidence thus obtained should not be admitted in the proceedings. The judge of the Harju County Court noted that challenging procedural acts by appealing against investigative activities – uurimiskaebemenetlus (see paragraphs 34-35 below) – did not prevent the accused from raising the question of admissibility of the evidence obtained via such measures at the trial stage of the proceedings and did not prevent the court from expressing its opinion on the matter. 28. At the hearing on 11 August 2020 the prosecutor submitted the examination report concerning the content of the applicant’s laptop and mobile telephone as evidence (see paragraph 24 above). The applicant pointed out that although the information obtained by examining his data carriers was unlawful, he did not object to the court admitting it in evidence, stating that he considered it vindicatory. The applicant did not contest any of the keywords used for examination of the content of the data carriers. 29. At the time of receipt of the parties’ observations, the applicant’s criminal proceedings were still ongoing. RELEVANT LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND PRACTICE
Relevant domestic legislation Code of Criminal Procedure

30. Article 83 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCrP) concerns the examination (vaatlus) of, inter alia, physical evidence. Article 83 § 3 provides that if an explanation from a suspect, an accused, a witness, a qualified person or a victim is considered conducive to ensuring the thoroughness, comprehensiveness and objectivity of the examination, that person may be asked to attend the examination. 31. Article 91 of the CCrP concerns searches. Article 91 § 1 provides that the aim of the search is, inter alia, to find an object to be confiscated or used as physical evidence, a document, or an item or person necessary for elucidating a criminal offence. A search may be conducted where there is a reasonable suspicion that the object is to be found at the place of the search. Article 91 § 2 provides that, unless otherwise provided in the CCrP, a search may be conducted at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, on the basis of an order issued by a preliminary investigation judge or on the basis of a court order (eeluurimiskohtuniku määruse või kohtumääruse alusel). Both a preliminary investigation judge’s order and a court order may take the form of an endorsement added to the request submitted by the Prosecutor’s Office (võib olla koostatud pealdisena prokuratuuri taotlusel). Article 91 § 3 provides a reference to a list of offences with respect to which the search authorisation may be given by the Prosecutor’s Office. This does not apply to searches conducted on the premises of a law firm (advokaadibüroo). Article 91 § 4 provides that the search warrant (läbiotsimismäärus) must explain the object of the search, the reasons for the search and the place where the search is to be conducted. Under Article 91 § 8 a law firm (advokaadibüroo) must be searched in the presence of the lawyer (advokaat) whose premises are being searched. If the lawyer cannot be present during the search, the search must be conducted in the presence of another lawyer providing legal services through the same law office, or if this is impossible, another lawyer. Article 91 § 10 provides that in the course of a search, all objects which are subject to confiscation or clearly constitute evidence in the criminal proceedings may be seized provided that they were discovered without any search in a clearly visible place or in the course of a reasonable search undertaken in order to find the requisite items. 32. Article 125 concerns the storage of physical evidence. Article  125 § 1 provides that physical evidence must be stored in a criminal file, in the physical evidence storage facility of an investigative body, at the prosecutor’s office, at court or on other premises in its possession or jurisdiction, or in a forensic institution. Otherwise, the measures prescribed in Article 126 of the CCrP will be applied to the physical evidence unless that would prejudice the criminal proceedings in the case. Article 125 § 3 obliges the person with whom physical evidence is deposited to ensure the inviolability and preservation of the evidence. 33. Article 225 § 1 provides that participants in proceedings may submit requests to the Prosecutor’s Office within ten days as of the date of submission of the criminal file to the participants for examination. Article 225 § 3 provides that the dismissal of such a request in pre-trial proceedings does not prevent its re-submission in the trial proceedings. 34. Under Article 228 § 1, a party to criminal proceedings has a right, before the relevant indictment is drawn up, to lodge an appeal with the Prosecutor’s Office against a procedural action or an order issued by an investigating body if he or she considers that a violation of procedural requirements in the performance of a procedural action or in the preparation of an order resulted in his or her rights being violated (appeal against investigative activities, uurimiskaebemenetlus). Under Article 228 § 2, before the indictment is drawn up, the same person has a right to appeal to the Office of the Prosecutor General against an action or an order of the Prosecutor’s Office. 35. Article 230 § 1 provides that if the activities of an investigating body or Prosecutor’s Office violating a person’s rights were contested, and the person did not agree with the decision of the Office of the Prosecutor General reviewing the appeal, the person has a right to lodge an appeal with the preliminary investigation judge of a county court. Bar Association Act
36. Section 41(1)(3) provides that in the provision of legal services a lawyer can freely choose and use all available means and methods which are in conformity with law. 37. The first sentence of section 43(2) provides that information disclosed to a lawyer is confidential. 38. Section 43(3) provides that data carriers concerning the provision of legal services by a lawyer are inviolable. 39. Section 43(5) provides that a lawyer cannot be detained, searched or taken into custody on the basis of circumstances arising from his or her professional activities, unless so ordered by a county or city court. Nor can a law firm in which a lawyer provides legal services be searched on the basis of circumstances arising from his or her professional activities. The commented edition of the Code of Conduct of the Estonian Bar Association explains, in relation to that provision, that a lawyer cannot generally be detained, searched or taken into custody. However, such actions may be permissible for serious public-interest reasons, such as when a lawyer has him or herself been involved in a criminal offence. Where such reasons exist, they must be validated by a court, and the detention, search or taking into custody may thus only be authorised by a court. The commented edition of the Code of Conduct of the Estonian Bar Association also states that conducting searches in places other than a law office (such as in a lawyer’s home or a car) can raise issues under criminal procedural law. On the one hand section 43(5) of the Bar Association Act provides that it should be authorised by a judge, but on the other hand Article 91 of the CCrP does not set out any such requirement. The authors suggest that, having regard to the primacy of the lawyers’ professional guarantees, such searches should in any event be authorised by a judge. Similarly, searches of lawyers’ homes or cars should take place in the presence of the lawyer concerned or another lawyer. 40. Under section 44(1)(1) a lawyer is required to use all available means and methods which are in conformity with law in the interests of a client, while preserving his or her professional honour and dignity. 41. Under section 44(1)(4) a lawyer must store data carriers concerning the provision of legal services separately from other data carriers in his or her possession. Code of Conduct of the Estonian Bar Association
42. Article 5 § 4 of the Code of Conduct provides that a lawyer must ensure that no third person has access to his client’s documents, correspondence or other information, or to any documents drafted by the lawyer in the course of rendering legal services to the client. 43. The commented edition of the Code of Conduct of the Estonian Bar Association provides further explanations on Article 5 § 4, pointing out that the obligation to keep confidential all the documents and data carriers that concern the provision of legal services corresponds to the obligation stipulated in section 44(1)(4) of the Bar Association Act. This principle must be followed even if the clients’ data is in the electronic format. That means that the material related to the clients’ cases must be distinguished and separated from other files. The lawyer must be able to show that the clients’ files are in a separate server. In a virtual server the separation derives from clearly marked catalogue structures. Compensation for Damage Caused in Offence Proceedings Act
44. Section 7(1) of the Compensation for Damage caused in Offence Proceedings Act (süüteomenetluses tekitatud kahju hüvitamise seadus) provides that if the body responsible for conducting proceedings either negligently or knowingly violates the law that governs those proceedings and thereby causes damage to a person, that person has the right to demand compensation regardless of the final outcome of the offence proceedings whereby the damage was caused. 45. Under section 11(1) compensation for non-pecuniary damage is granted to a natural person under section 7 of the same Act only if, in the offence proceedings, that person was deprived of liberty, was tortured or treated in an inhuman or degrading manner, damage was caused to his or her health, or if the inviolability of his or her home or of private life was infringed, the confidentiality of his or her messages was violated or his or her honour or good name was defamed. Relevant domestic case-lawProfessional secrecy and the inviolability of data carriers concerning the provision of legal services

46. The Supreme Court’s judgment of 10 June 2005 in case no. 3-3-1-30-05 concerned a lawyer’s meeting with a client in prison. The case is relevant for the interpretation that the Supreme Court gave to section 43(5) of the Bar Association Act. The Supreme Court noted that section 43(5) of the Bar Association Act could not be interpreted as meaning that a search of an attorney in circumstances concerning his or her professional activity would, without exception, be unlawful in all cases without a county or city court order authorising the search. Prison administrations had to be able to prevent or combat an offence where a reasonable suspicion existed that a lawyer entering or exiting the prison was committing an offence or the lawyer’s meeting with a prisoner was being used to commit an offence. In that case, the search of the lawyer was found to be unlawful since no such information (suspicion of an offence) existed. 47. In its judgment of 17 May 2010 in case no. 1-08-15079, the Tallinn Court of Appeal addressed the admissibility as evidence of electronic correspondence between the accused (not a lawyer) and a law firm. The correspondence had been obtained from a search of one of the accused’s cars and of a server used by a certain company. The court emphasised that the admissibility as evidence of such electronic correspondence should be analysed in the framework of the combined effect of the Bar Association Act and the CCrP. The court explained that Article 91 of the CCrP did not impose limitations on the use of data carriers seized in the course of a search. At the same time, section 43(2) of the Bar Association Act stipulated that information disclosed to a lawyer was confidential, and section 43(3) provided that carriers of data concerning the provision of legal services by a lawyer were inviolable. The court found that in a situation where a contractual relationship between a lawyer and a client existed and legal services were provided, and where the client had not of their own free will disclosed to third parties information relating to the provision of legal services, the protection of confidentiality extended to the electronic correspondence between a lawyer and a client found on the data carriers that had been seized during the search. The court furthermore agreed that the confidentiality could be breached in a situation where a lawyer had been directly involved in the commission of the offence. This was not so in the given case and the impugned correspondence was not admitted as evidence. 48. By judgment of 26 May 2010 in case no. 3-1-1-22-10, the Supreme Court addressed the question of the admission as evidence of correspondence between an accused and a lawyer that had been obtained by means of secret surveillance. Relying on a regulation then in force, the Supreme Court found that it did not permit accepting as evidence information provided by a lawyer in so far as it entailed matters that the lawyer had learned in the course of his or her professional activity. In the case in question it was found that a message and a telephone conversation between a lawyer and the accused had not concerned the provision of legal services. The court added that it was competent to assess whether certain information related to the provision of legal services and was thus governed by professional secrecy. Challenging procedural measures during pre-trial and trial proceedings
49. By judgment of 13 May 2019 in case no 1-15-11032/308, the Supreme Court drew a distinction between such pre-trial measures that could be challenged only during the pre-trial proceedings (see paragraphs 34-35 above concerning appeal against investigative activities) and those that could (also) be challenged during the main proceedings. It noted that the measure in question – “obligation not to leave the place of residence” – was intended to guarantee the effectiveness of the proceedings and could only be challenged during the pre-trial stage of the proceedings. The court then went on to explain that the aim of the trial proceedings was to elucidate whether the accused had committed an offence. In order to do so, it was necessary to examine and analyse various items of evidence, such as evidence which had been obtained by means of searches or secret surveillance. In other words, during the main proceedings questions concerning the admissibility of evidence had to be addressed and disputed. Claims of non-pecuniary damage
50. By judgment of 13 June 2016 in case no. 3-1-1-34-16 the Supreme Court, relying on the Compensation for Damage Caused in Offence Proceedings Act (see paragraphs 44-45 above), upheld the judgment of the lower-instance court to compensate the plaintiff for the non-pecuniary damage caused by the unlawful surveillance activities in the criminal proceedings against him. THE LAW
        ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 8 OF THE CONVENTION
51. The applicant, referring to legal professional privilege and the inviolability of data carriers that concern the provision of legal services, complained that the seizure of his laptop and mobile telephone and their subsequent examination had violated his rights as secured under Article 8 of the Convention. Article 8 of the Convention reads as follows:
“1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. 2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”
AdmissibilityThe parties’ submissions

(a)   The Government
52. The Government, relying on several sub-arguments, held that the applicant had not exhausted domestic remedies. 53. Firstly, the Government underlined that as the applicant had failed to invoke legal professional privilege until almost a month after the seizure, he had failed to exhaust domestic remedies with respect to the procedural measures taken until 7 March 2018. 54. Secondly, the Government pointed out that the applicant had not asked to be present during the examination of the copied content of the laptop and mobile telephone, as suggested by the Harju County Court in its decision of 6 July 2018. In the Government’s view, such a right derived from Article 83 of the CCrP (see paragraph 30 above). 55. Thirdly, the applicant had not made use of the possibility of submitting requests or complaints concerning the examination of the copied data, as provided in Article 225 of the CCrP (see paragraph 33 above). In the Government’s view, the latter could not be regarded as a “duplicate remedy” to the one that the applicant had already used. It was only after being presented with the criminal file on 23 November 2018 that the applicant could have ascertained the extent of the examination of the copied data, including the keywords used, and have submitted his objections to that. 56. Fourthly, the Government noted that under procedural law the applicant could have contested the admissibility of the evidence which he considered to have been obtained unlawfully. The decision of the preliminary investigation judge of the Harju County Court had not been binding on the court hearing the main case (see paragraph 27 above). The Government stressed that the domestic courts’ possible finding concerning the unlawfulness of evidence would inherently entail a finding concerning the legality of the collection of such evidence. However, the applicant did not challenge the admissibility of the evidence but rather considered that it spoke in his favour. Nonetheless, had he challenged the admissibility of the evidence and had the court found that the seizure of his laptop and mobile telephone and the examination of information extracted from them had been unlawful, the applicant would have been entitled to claim non-pecuniary damages under the Compensation for Damage Caused in Offence Proceedings Act (see paragraphs 44-45 above). 57. The Government also emphasised that the applicant had not specified at any time which information should have been considered as protected by lawyer-client confidentiality. Such a clarification would have been relevant, given that the applicant’s laptop and mobile telephone were not seized from his office and were apparently not used solely for purposes of his work as a lawyer. 58. Finally, the Government submitted that the complaint was manifestly ill-founded. (b)   The applicant
59. The applicant had submitted his observations before the Harju County Court hearing of 11 August 2020 (see paragraph 28 above). 60. The applicant considered that he had exhausted the relevant domestic remedies before lodging his application with the Court. 61. Firstly, no appeal had lain with the Harju County Court’s decision of 6 July 2018. 62. Secondly, there was no legal basis for the Harju County Court’s suggestion, repeated by the Government, that the applicant could have asked to be present during the examination of the data extracted from his laptop and mobile telephone. Even if such a possibility had been granted under the law, it would not have prevented the breach of the applicant’s rights, as by the time of the examination all the content of the laptop and mobile telephone had already been copied and there was nothing to prevent it from being examined by the authorities at any stage before or after the time when the applicant could have been present. The applicant considered that the only effective remedy after the seizure of the data carriers and the copying of their content would have been to renounce examining the copied data and to delete it. 63. Thirdly, the applicant disagreed that submitting “requests” under Article 225 of the CCrP (as opposed to lodging appeals under Article 228 of the CCrP) could be considered an effective remedy. He explained that in practice requests made under Article 225 of the CCrP often concerned proposals to terminate criminal proceedings or to settle the case through plea bargaining. This article was rarely used to challenge individual procedural acts. In any event, by the time the criminal file was presented to the applicant, the prosecutor’s office had already twice dismissed his requests to refrain from examining the data extracted from the data carriers. 64. Fourthly, as regards challenging the admission of evidence during the trial proceedings, the applicant argued that in such a situation the domestic courts would only rule on the lawfulness of the evidence, not on the violation of his rights as a lawyer. He further considered that a prospect of a compensation award would not eliminate the violation of his rights under the Convention. 65. He added that under section 43(3) of the Bar Association Act he had no obligation to specify which particular files were covered by lawyer-client confidentiality, as under that provision the data carriers were protected in their entirety. In any event, expecting such a specification would be unreasonable in view of the large number of professional contacts held by the applicant, and would have led to the unlawful disclosure of his other clients who were not concerned by the ongoing criminal proceedings.

Outcome for Article 8: violation