issued by the Registrar of the Court  
ECHR 282 (2019)  
25.07.2019  
Right to disclosure of evidence under modern data circumstances:  
criminal proceedings were fair  
In today’s Chamber judgment1 in the case of Rook v. Germany (application no. 1586/15) the  
European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been:  
no violation of Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial) taken together with Article 6 § 3 (b) (right to  
adequate time and facilities for the preparation of the defence) of the European Convention on  
Human Rights.  
The case concerned the fairness of criminal proceedings where around 80,000 items of  
telecommunication surveillance data had been produced and 14 million electronic files seized.  
The Court found in particular that the defence had had sufficient access to the file and sufficient  
time to acquaint itself with the telecommunication surveillance data and the electronic files to  
prepare for the trial. The proceedings, considered as a whole, had therefore been fair.  
Principal facts  
The applicant, Michael Rook, is a German national who was born in 1964 and lives in Quickborn  
(Germany). He was a senior manager and, most recently, managing director of a major retailer for  
consumer electronics in Germany and other European countries.  
In February 2011 the Augsburg public prosecutor’s office opened a criminal investigation against Mr  
Rook for taking bribes in commercial activity. In November 2011 he was taken into detention on  
remand. During the investigation wide-ranging telecommunication surveillance was carried out. A  
total of around 44,970 telephone calls and about 34,000 other data sets were stored. During  
searches of Mr Rook’s home and of other premises some 14 million electronic files stored on data  
devices were seized.  
The data were analysed by the police; around 1,100 of the electronic files and transcripts of 28  
telephone conversations were considered as relevant to the case and were printed and included in  
the paper files. In November 2011 Mr Rook’s lawyer was provided access to the paper investigation  
file. In November 2011 the lawyer asked to examine the audio files obtained. The public prosecutor’s  
office decided to grant access and informed him that he could examine the data on the premises of  
the criminal police.  
In February 2012 the public prosecutor’s office indicted Mr Rook before the Regional Court on 91  
counts of taking bribes in commercial activity. In March 2012 Mr Rook’s lawyer applied for access to  
the audio files in the form of a copy on DVD or CD, but the application was rejected. On appeal, the  
Regional Court ordered that all data sets were to be copied to a computer kept at the prison where  
Mr Rook was detained, that the defence could listen to the audio files in prison, together with Mr  
Rook. Shortly afterwards, the computer with the copied audio data was deposited ready for  
examination in the prison.  
1. Under Articles 43 and 44 of the Convention, this Chamber judgment is not final. During the three-month period following its delivery,  
any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If such a request is made, a panel of five judges  
considers whether the case deserves further examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and deliver a final  
judgment. If the referral request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day.  
Once a judgment becomes final, it is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for supervision of its execution.  
Further information about the execution process can be found here: www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/execution.  
In April 2012 Mr Rook’s lawyer applied to be provided a copy of the 14 million electronic files. In  
May 2012 he was provided with a hard disc holding the electronic files in encrypted form. A special  
program was needed to read the data. His subsequent application that the cost of this special  
software should be borne by the state was rejected. After lodging a new request to be provided with  
the data in unencrypted form, he received discs with the electronic files, readable with software  
available free of charge online, in September 2012.  
In December 2012 the Regional Court convicted him on 63 counts of taking bribes in commercial  
activity and sentenced him to five years and three months’ imprisonment.  
Mr Rook appealed, arguing in particular that his defence had been harmed because he and his  
lawyer had not had enough time to review the files of the telecommunication surveillance and the  
seized electronic data. In February 2014 the Federal Court of Justice quashed the Regional Court’s  
judgment in respect of three counts of bribery in commercial activity, but dismissed Mr Rook’s  
further appeal as ill-founded. In June 2014 the Federal Constitutional Court refused to admit his  
constitutional complaint.  
Complaints, procedure and composition of the Court  
Relying on Article 6 § 1 and 3 (b) (right to a fair trial and right to adequate time and facilities for the  
preparation of defence), Mr Rook complained that during the criminal proceedings against him he  
and his counsel had not been provided with sufficient and adequate access to audio files, text  
messages and electronic files which the authorities had seized during the investigation.  
The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 2 January 2015.  
Judgment was given by a Chamber of seven judges, composed as follows:  
Yonko Grozev (Bulgaria), President,  
Angelika Nußberger (Germany),  
André Potocki (France),  
Mārtiņš Mits (Latvia),  
Gabriele Kucsko-Stadlmayer (Austria),  
Lәtif Hüseynov (Azerbaijan),  
Lado Chanturia (Georgia),  
and also Claudia Westerdiek, Section Registrar.  
Decision of the Court  
Article 6 § 1 taken together with Article 6 § 3 (b)  
(i) Access to the case file  
The Court observed that throughout the proceedings the authorities had granted Mr Rook’s lawyer  
access to the paper investigation file and had provided him with a comprehensive overview of the  
accusations and evidence. They had also forwarded updates of that file at all times. Mr Rook had not  
claimed that data, files or documents which formed part of that file were not transmitted to his  
lawyer early enough in order to allow him to acquaint himself with them before or during the trial.  
The Court considered further that there had been sufficient possibilities for Mr Rook’s lawyer to  
discuss the investigation file in detail with him since the initial access to the paper file had been  
granted in November 2011, while the trial had started in June 2012 and had lasted until December  
2012. Over that time access to the file had essentially been unrestricted.  
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Moreover, the enormous amount of telecommunication data and electronic files collected during  
the investigation had been included only to a minor extent in the paper file. As most of it had been  
considered irrelevant to the charges by the investigation authorities, it had been kept in storage on  
police computers. In that connection, the authorities had also essentially confined themselves to the  
investigation file and the evidence later produced in the hearing, neither Mr Rook’s indictment nor  
conviction had been based on the electronic files or data. Against that background the time afforded  
to the defence to acquaint itself with the extensive results of the investigation had been sufficient.  
Thus, the Court found that Mr Rook and his lawyer had been granted sufficient access to the file in  
order to allow for preparation for the trial.  
(ii) Disclosure of the telecommunication surveillance data  
The Court observed that the authorities had decided to allow for disclosure of the  
telecommunication surveillance data in its entirety and that Mr Rook’s lawyer had had the possibility  
to examine it initially in the police premises, and later on additionally in the prison. Moreover, Mr  
Rook had never specified in what particular manner the restrictions in question had interfered with  
his ability to defend himself. The Government’s argument that the data could not be examined  
without a police officer present in order to protect the rights of those whose conversations might  
have been recorded appeared reasonable.  
The Court found furthermore that in view of the complexity of the criminal proceedings at issue it  
had not been necessary to allow Mr Rook’s lawyer to read through and listen to each and every item  
of the telecommunication data. Rather, it had been sufficient to give him an effective opportunity to  
analyse it in order to identify what he considered to be of relevance. In that connection, the Court  
was mindful of the fact that modern investigation methods might produce enormous amounts of  
data whose integration into criminal proceedings should not cause unnecessary delays in cases.  
Moreover, Mr Rook’s lawyer had only examined the data 22 times within the space of more than  
one year, apparently never together with Mr Rook in prison. He had neither made use of the  
possibility to have a judicial employee replace him nor had Mr Rook’s two other lawyers engaged in  
the analysing, listening and reading exercise. Also, Mr Rook would have known best what specific  
telecommunication data to look for. Therefore the authorities had provided the defence with an  
effective opportunity to identify the relevant files. In view of this, the Court found that Mr Rook had  
had sufficient time to acquaint himself with the telecommunication surveillance data.  
(iii) Disclosure of the electronic files  
The Court observed that Mr Rook’s lawyer could have accessed, but never had, the electronic files in  
their entirety at the offices of the criminal police from the end of February 2012.  
The Court considered it to be sufficient that he had had at least from September 2012, the day he  
had been provided with an unencrypted CD, until December 2012, the delivery of the judgment,  
amounting to three and a half months, to analyse the files to identify those which he considered  
relevant. The mere fact that the court proceedings had already begun had not rendered the  
preparatory time insufficient. The Court concluded that Mr Rook had had enough time to acquaint  
himself with the electronic files.  
Accordingly, there had been no violation of Article 6 § 1 taken together with Article 6 § 3 (b).  
The judgment is available only in English.  
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The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member  
States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.  
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