Fiches Belges

Yes, it is. Article 218a §1 of the CPC states that „Offices, institutions, and entities carrying out telecommunications activities or supplying electronic services and providers of digital services are under an obligation to immediately secure, upon demand of a court or a prosecutor contained in a decision, for a specific period of time, not longer than 90 days, IT data stored on devices containing such data on a carrier or in an IT system.

The EIO Directive and for the Member States who do not apply it, the MLA 2000 Convention.

Circuit Prosecutor´s Office (Prokuratura Okręgowa) having territorial jurisdiction– for the pre-trial stage District Court (Sąd Rejonowy) having territorial jurisdiction– for the trial stage National Prosecutor’s Office Bureau of International Cooperation – a central authority for the pre-trial stage. Poland does not establish a central authority for cases at the judicial stage of the proceeding. However, if an EIO was issued at the judicial stage of the proceedings, and establishing the competent court in Poland was not possible (even via contact points of the European Judicial Network), the transmission of an EIO will be possible via the Ministry of Justice Department of International Cooperation and Human Rights. Ministry of Justice Department of International Cooperation and Human Rights is a central authority for the MLA 1959 Convention and MLA 2000 Convention.

EIO – Polish. Only in urgent matters English would be acceptable. However, due to the fact that in Poland the EIO still would have to be translated into Polish, it is recommended to send it immediately with translation into Polish. MLA – Polish, but English and French are also possible.

EIO – deadlines stipulated by the EIO Directive have been implemented. MLA – no deadlines, but the request for assistance shall be executed as soon as possible and be given priority, especially if marked by the requesting authority as urgent. The requesting authority shall explain the reasons for the deadline. If the request cannot be executed within the time limit set in it, the requested authority shall immediately inform the requesting authority. It will provide information on the new time limit.

IT data referred to in Article 218a § 1 of the CPC, irrelevant to the criminal proceedings, shall be immediately released from such security measures. The provisions of Article 218a § 1 and 2 of the CPC shall apply accordingly to securing contents published or made available electronically, with the stipulation that the entity obliged to enforce the demand made by the court or the prosecutor may also be the controller of these contents.