More safeguards for suspects and rules for tech-based investigations

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. It strengthens the right to defense: anyone accused of a crime can have a lawyer from the start, speak with them in private, and receive information about the charges in language they understand, adapted to their age or disability.
2. It improves the rights of detainees: they must be informed in writing, in plain language, of the charges and their rights, they can meet privately with their lawyer even before giving a statement, and the lawyer must arrive at the detention center within three hours. It also covers the right to notify a family member, call a third party, and contact the consulate for foreign nationals.
3. It limits incommunicado detention: it is only allowed when urgently needed to protect people or the proceedings, lasts at most five days (extendable by five more in specific cases), and can never be applied to minors under sixteen.
4. It regulates tech-based investigation measures by law, such as interception of phone and internet communications, recording of conversations, tracking and location, searches of mass storage devices, and remote searches of computers. All of them require judicial authorization and must meet the principles of specialty, suitability, exceptionality, necessity, and proportionality.
5. It sets maximum time limits for these measures: communications interception can last three months, extendable up to eighteen; remote searches of computers, one month extendable up to three; and data preservation orders, ninety days extendable up to one hundred eighty. In addition, recordings must be deleted once the proceedings end.
6. It replaces the word imputado with investigado or encausado throughout the Criminal Procedure Act, to avoid negative connotations, and clarifies that the law applies to proceedings started after it takes effect and to actions ordered after that in pending cases.

Who it affects

• People under investigation or formally charged with a crime: They get more safeguards: a lawyer from the start, understandable information, and confidential communications with their lawyer.
• Detained or imprisoned persons: They receive their rights in writing, can notify a family member, and must be assisted by a lawyer within three hours.
• Minors under sixteen: They can never be held incommunicado.
• Telecom operators and digital service companies: They must cooperate with judges and police in communications interceptions, under penalty of the crime of disobedience.
• Judges, prosecutors, and judicial police: They must request and justify tech-based investigation measures before a judge and monitor their duration and execution.

Words worth knowing

Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal (Criminal Procedure Act)

The Spanish law that governs how criminal cases are investigated and tried.

Ley orgánica (organic law)

A special type of Spanish law, requiring stronger parliamentary majorities, used to develop fundamental rights.

Prisión incomunicada (incommunicado detention)

A regime in which the detainee cannot communicate with people outside, with limited exceptions.

Registro remoto (remote search)

A measure allowing authorities to examine, from a distance and without the owner knowing, the contents of a computer or computer system.

Agente encubierto (undercover agent)

A police officer who acts under a false identity to investigate crimes, with judicial authorization.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries