Supreme Court overturns notary’s right to refuse to give evidence
The Supreme Court has once again overturned a decision in a case in which Linda van der Hut complained about the court’s ruling that the notary in question could be compelled to testify.
The decision in the case of a notary in which Linda complained about the court’s judgement that there were very exceptional circumstances in which the interest in revealing the truth – even where information covered by the right to refuse to give evidence is concerned – takes precedence over the right to refuse to give evidence, has been overturned. The Supreme Court:
Based on these findings, the court ruled that ‘in view of the nature, seriousness and extent of the suspicion against the complainant, there are very exceptional circumstances that justify a breach of the complainant’s right to privilege’ and that ‘now that the investigation is still ongoing, the criminal interest of finding the truth precludes lifting the seizure’. However, the court did not subsequently include in its judgement whether the infringement of the right to privilege with regard to the administrative documents and data carriers confiscated from the complainant did not go beyond what was strictly necessary to uncover the truth of the facts in question. In light of (…) the court’s judgement is therefore insufficiently substantiated. It is important to note that (i) the court did make further findings about ‘’in particular‘’ the writings confiscated from the co-defendants, but not specifically with regard to the administrative documents confiscated from the complainant, and (ii) the court has established with regard to (the copies of) the server and iPhone confiscated from the complainant that the examining magistrate has not yet filtered the relevant data.
Read the full judgement here.
