The Court of Justice of the EU dismissed Kočner ‘s lawsuit against Europol – PRAVDA.sk

On Wednesday, the EU General Court dismissed Marian Kočner’s lawsuit against Europol in connection with the investigation into the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová.

TASR

29.09.2021 11:50, updated: 12:23

According to the Luxembourg court, Kočner has not shown that the publication of his personal data by the Slovak media and on the Internet, as well as the inclusion of his name in the “mafia lists”, is attributable to Europol.

The court recalled that after the assassination of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová on 21 February 2018, the Slovak authorities carried out an extensive investigation. Within it, and at the request of the Slovak authorities, the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) extracted data stored on two mobile phones, which were supposed to belong to Marian Kočner, and on a USB storage device.

On 13 January 2019, Europol submitted a report to the Slovak authorities concerning actions performed on USB and on 21 June 2019 also forensic reports concerning actions performed on mobile phones.

In May 2019, transcripts of private communications, which came from the mobile phones in question, were published in the Slovak media and on the Internet. Kočner then brought an action before the EU General Court seeking damages from Europol in the amount of EUR 100 000 for non-pecuniary damage suffered as a result of infringing his honor and professional reputation and his right to respect for private and family life. of life.

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According to Kočner, Europol violated its obligations in the area of ​​personal data protection and published the information in question even before the forensic reports submitted to the Slovak authorities. Kočner also complained that in a report of 13 January 2019, Europol included his name in the “mafia lists”.

The General Court recalled that as regards Europol’s disclosure of transcripts of private communications extracted from mobile phones, the evidence provided by Europol refuted Kočner’s assertion that at the time of their publication by the Slovak media only those transcripts were available to the EU Police Office.

According to an official record of 23 October 2018, at that date a Europol staff member had transmitted to the Slovak authorities a hard disk containing preliminary results in the form of data extractions from mobile phones. This means that already in October 2018, the disputed data were also available to the Slovak authorities and Europol was not the only entity that would have this data available.

In addition, Europol never had the communication at issue in a decrypted and comprehensible form, as it limited its operations to obtaining and extracting encrypted data contained on mobile telephones. Only after receiving the encrypted data did the Slovak authorities decrypt the data into an intelligible form.

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In the absence of evidence, the publication of the transcripts cannot therefore be regarded as attributable to Europol and it cannot be concluded that there is a causal link between the alleged damage and that agency’s conduct.

As regards the damage which Kočner claims to have suffered as a result of Europol’s inclusion of his name in the ‘mafia lists’, the court found that the applicant had not adduced any evidence to show that Europol had drawn up and maintained those lists.

According to the court, Kočner did not submit any evidence that could prove that the information published in the Slovak media in connection with the alleged inclusion of his name in the “mafia lists” comes from the report of 13 January 2019.

The General Court emphasized that even before the murders of Kuciak and Kušnírová, the Slovak media described Marian Kočner as a “mobster”. This precludes such labeling from originating in the report of 13 January 2019. Consequently, the Court ruled that the damage allegedly resulting from the shift in labeling used by the Slovak media at Kočner could not be attributed to Europol. In those circumstances, the General Court dismissed the action in its entirety.

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