SBU employees came to me.
It was reported that I was allegedly "mining" buildings and then informing the administration of the "mined" buildings about this by phone.
The SBU came to my residential address for an interview, but during this interview they checked my electronic devices, actually chats in the Telegram messenger.
Did they have the right?
Yaroslav Sikorsky
Usually, in order for law enforcement officials to be able to enter your home and check electronic devices without your consent, they need a ruling from the investigating judge.
As for SBU employees, in accordance with Article 25 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Security Service of Ukraine", SBU employees have the right to prosecute persons suspected of having committed them, exclusively in the case of immediate termination of criminal offenses, the investigation of which is assigned by law to the competence of the Security Service of Ukraine * enter dwellings, service, production and other premises, territories and land plots and inspect them in accordance with the procedure stipulated by the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine*.
And therefore, in accordance with the above, guided by the requirements of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, in order to enter your home and check electronic devices, SBU employees also need a decision of the investigating judge.
If you did not give your consent to enter your home, and the SBU employees did not present the decision of the investigating judge, then these actions were illegal.
The law provides for only a few cases when law enforcement officers can enter your home without a warrant from the investigating judge:
in cases related to saving lives and property;
in connection with the direct prosecution of persons suspected of committing a criminal offense.