Facts
The Federal Supreme Court decided on an appeal against an unsealing decision of the Federal Criminal Court. The Federal Prosecutor's Office had requested the unsealing and release of seized documents and electronic data for the purpose of criminal prosecution. The main accused filed an appeal against the unsealing decision.
The proceedings concerned a criminal investigation against the main accused and other persons on suspicion of commercial investment fraud and other offenses. In the course of the investigation, extensive documents and electronic data had been seized and sealed.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court stated that seized and sealed documents and files must be relevant to the investigation in order for the unsealing judge to release them for further use by the investigating authorities. The unsealing judge must perform the necessary triage and exclude obviously irrelevant files from unsealing.
The Federal Supreme Court criticized that the lower court had not sufficiently examined the investigative relevance of the seized files. In particular, with regard to…