The application to open the main proceedings is dismissed. The Chamber finds that communications conducted via the ‘EncroChat’ service are subject to a prohibition on their use as evidence. The data interception on German territory was carried out in breach of legal assistance provisions designed to protect individual rights and without the specific suspicion of criminal activity required under the relevant provisions of German law. The indictment was based primarily on EncroChat messages (16 counts of illegal trafficking in substantial quantities of narcotics). In the absence of further conclusive evidence, there is insufficient suspicion against the defendant.