Rima Hassan's privacy complaint over phone data dismissed

A legal complaint lodged by European Parliament member Rima Hassan, alleging invasion of privacy and abuse of authority related to the geolocation data of her phone, has been dismissed. The Bobigny prosecutor's office announced the decision, which Hassan and her lawyer intend to contest.

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As if by chance, only a few weeks after the complaint was filed, Rima Hassan learns that the procedure is being dismissed, on the very eve of the hearing set by the prosecution.

Hassan's complaint stemmed from the police's exploitation of her phone's location data as part of an investigation into alleged public incitement to terrorism. Her lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, stated that the decision to dismiss the complaint was received just before a hearing scheduled for Hassan on charges of apologizing for terrorism.

The prosecutor's office indicated that the facts or circumstances of the case could not be clearly established through the investigation, deeming the evidence insufficient to bring criminal charges. Brengarth criticized the timing of the dismissal, suggesting it was an attempt to preemptively justify the irregularities in the investigation that led to the upcoming trial.

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It is difficult to see this as anything other than a justification by anticipation of the irregularities of the investigation that led to the trial.

According to the complaint, the police accessed Hassan's phone's "geolocalisation 'a posteriori,'" commonly known as "cell tower data," between January 1 and March 28, and again on April 2, the day she was taken into custody. Brengarth argued that these investigations constituted a "particularly intrusive" surveillance, constituting a "serious, disproportionate, and unjustified" violation of her right to privacy.

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By their nature, repetition, and duration, the disputed investigations established a particularly intrusive surveillance against Ms. Rima Hassan, thus constituting a serious, disproportionate, and unjustified violation of her right to privacy.