Austrian Constitutional Court upholds the use of foreign-obtained encrypted chats as evidence

27 October 2026

The Verfassungsgerichtshof (VfGH) has dismissed challenges to provisions of the Strafprozessordnung (StPO), Austria's Code of Criminal Procedure, on obtaining and using evidence. The press release of 8 October 2026 covers judgments dated 29 September 2026 in cases G 123-124/2025, G 132-133/2025 and G 180/2025. Three people convicted at first instance of drug trafficking had raised the challenge in appeals to the Oberster Gerichtshof, Austria's supreme court. The VfGH held that decrypted encrypted chats obtained and passed on by foreign authorities may be used as evidence in Austrian criminal proceedings, and that the equality principle does not require Austria to apply its domestic exclusion rules to evidence gathered abroad. It said evidence obtained through torture, coerced self-incrimination or state-initiated incitement to crime remains excluded whether gathered at home or abroad. The provisions were found not to violate the fundamental right to data protection or the right to respect for private and family life.