On 10 December, the Committee of Ministers ended its supervision of the execution of the European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in the case of Sommer v. Germany. The case concerned the violation of the right to respect for private life due to the procedural shortcomings in the inspection of a lawyer’s bank account in the course of a criminal investigation against his client.
The case-law of the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice related to the inspection of lawyers’ bank accounts in the course of criminal investigations against their clients take due account of the need to restrictively interpret the relevant domestic legislation and to apply it only in cases of a sufficiently specific suspicion and are thus in line with the Court’s judgment. In order to better protect particularly sensitive personal information, in 2023, the Directives for criminal proceedings and administrative fine proceedings (Richtlinien für das Strafverfahren und das Bußgeldverfahren – RiStBV) were amended. They now include a clear instruction not to put sensitive information, such as banking documents, in the main file, but in a separate file, limiting access to such information in line with the Convention requirements.
