Prosecutors call for easier access to digital data in anti-terror fight
Anti-terror investigators must be allowed easier access to phone and digital messages, top public prosecutors from France, Belgium, Spain and Morocco said on Friday. Ecrypted message services and locked phones, tablets and computers are a major obstacle in their efforts to track down actual and potential terrorists, they claimed after a two-day meeting in Paris.
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While recognising that "protection of personal data remains a basic right", the prosecutors called for "specialised legal authorities" to have "access to data of people implicated in acts of a terrorist nature" if it is needed for their inquiries.
The appeal, read to a press conference by France's top prosecutor François Molins, was aimed at governments and international institutions but also at the manufacturers and operators of phones and digital equipment.
FBI-Apple encryption dispute
In a famous case in 2016 Apple refused to create new software to allow the US's FBI to access information on an iPhone seized from one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino massacre that killed 14 people and injured 22.
The FBI dropped that case after announcing that a third party had managed to unlock the phone but in 2015 and 2016 the company received and contested at leat 10 other such orders.
Other tech firms backed Apple and UN human rights commissioner Zeid Raad al-Hussein warned the FBI that its demands had "extremely damaging implications" for human rights.
Rising number of minors involved
But, with public concern rising following major attacks like those in France and Belgium in 2015 and 2016, investigators are pushing for more powers.
They say terror attackers can be convicted and potential perpetrators stopped on the basis of information hidden in electronic devices.
French investigators say the encrypted message service Telegram is widely used by jihadists, including the Islamic State armed group, to recruit members and plot attacks.
Access to protected data would "help us to protect particularly vulnerable people", such as minors of whom an increasing number feature in cases, the statement said.
Countries working closer together since Paris attacks
The meeting brought together Molins, Spain's Javier Zaragoza, Morocco's Moulay Hassan Daki and Belgium's Frédéric Van Leeuw.
France and Belgium set up a joint anti-terror team after the November 2015 Paris attacks, which were partly planned in Belgium, leading to the arrest of the only surviving perpetrator Salah Abdeslam.
Morocco, several of whose nationals were involved in the attacks, provided intelligence that led French police to their hideout and has continued to help European agencies track down jihadists.
To read our coverage of the November Paris attacks and their aftermath click here
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