TSI rules deleted recording illegal

Regardless of its deletion or retention, a recording made without consent will be subject to related violations should the act of recording be proven, the Court of Second Instance (TSI) has ruled.

The court disclosed that in 2021, the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) summoned a convicted person – referred to as A – to an inquiry as a witness.

The two CCAC inspectors conducting the inquiry discovered that the voice recording function on A’s cellphone was turned on during the inquiry, although the phone was in A’s bag.

The inspectors had not consented to the voice recording.

Upon the discovery, A was charged with illicit recording and photographing as a main suspect and an accomplice.

The Court of First Instance (TJB) heard the case and convicted A on both charges, sentencing A to nine months in prison under two years of probation.

The TJB has also conducted tests with the same mobile phone model and proved that voice can be clearly recorded even with the phone inside the type of bag that A had.

The TSI saw that the deletion of the recording is not the same as the absence of the act of recording. It stressed that once an act of recording is concluded, the condition of violation is established, regardless of the deletion afterwards.