The European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in the case Pietrzak and Bychawska-Siniarska and Others v. Poland in May 2024.
The Court held that there had been three violations of the right to respect for private and family life and correspondence. The Court found that the identified shortcomings in the operational-control regime indicated that the national legislation did not provide sufficient safeguards against excessive surveillance and undue interference with individuals' private lives. The absence of such guarantees was not adequately counterbalanced by the existing mechanism for judicial review. The Court also highlighted the necessity of protecting lawyer-client privilege, which is compromised by the surveillance of lawyers.
Alexis Anagnostakis, ECBA's Human Rights Officer, participated as a third party in the hearing of the European Court of Human Rights case Pietrzak and Bychawska-Siniarska and Others v. Poland on September 27, 2022. This case involved a complaint by five Polish nationals, including the leading criminal lawyer and Dean of the Warsaw Bar, Mikołaj Pietrzak, concerning Polish legislation that authorizes a system for secret surveillance and the retention of telecommunications, postal, and digital communications data for potential use by national authorities.
The complainants alleged that there was no remedy available under domestic law for individuals who believe they have been subjected to secret surveillance to complain and have its lawfulness reviewed.
In the submission, the ECBA's stance was emphasized, calling for the full implementation of the principles of transparency, access to surveillance data by those surveilled, and judicial review of the lawfulness and necessity of surveillance, especially when it involves innocent and unsuspected individuals not engaged in illegal activities. The fact that one of the applicants was a lawyer raised significant concerns about breaches of legal privilege in lawyer-client communications.
ECHR Press release.
The judgment can be read here (in French).
The parts that are of particular interest to lawyers are in s. 214 to s. 225.
