Phone taps acceptable as evidence
Taped phone calls or other conversations, until now inadmissible as evidence in Greek courts, can be used to prove a legal point under certain conditions, according to a decision made public yesterday. The Supreme Court ruled against a woman, who had appealed a 15-month suspended conviction for embezzlement arguing that she had been convicted on the evidence of a taped conversation with a colleague. The woman’s case had been rejected by an appeals court. Greece’s highest criminal court ruled that the tape had been legally used as evidence by the woman’s employer, as it had no other means of protecting its interests in the 7,000-euro embezzlement case. Furthermore, the court found that the company itself had not been involved in making the tape, which was the work of the woman’s colleague. Under Greek criminal law, it is illegal to make use of information or tapes acquired through breach of privacy in telephone or face-to-face conversations, and such illegally acquired information cannot be used as evidence in court.
