**Police Intercept Evidence from Sky ECC Cryptophone Network 'Unreliable', Antwerp Court Told**

A high-stakes drama unfolded in the Antwerp Regional Court yesterday, as a forensic expert's bombshell testimony threw new doubts into the reliability of digital evidence supplied by Belgian police to prosecute multiple criminal cases linked to Nordin El Hajjioui, a notorious drugs kingpin accused of importing narcotics through Antwerp.

Defence lawyers, led by Reisinger, presented evidence from British forensic expert Duncan Campbell that raised serious concerns over the accuracy and integrity of data analysed by Belgian investigators. Campbell's report revealed errors and inconsistencies in the data, which had not been explained or highlighted to the court. His analysis suggested that the data was processed by individuals who may not have understood how to process it correctly.

One of the most striking revelations emerged from a comparison between datasets submitted in 2022 and 2025. Prosecutors had claimed these datasets were "identical", but Campbell's investigation revealed significant discrepancies. Specifically, he found that 108,000 new messages had been added to the more recent dataset – raising questions about how this data was processed and whether it was properly authenticated.

Prosecution claims that these new messages had only recently been decrypted did not withstand scrutiny, as the unencrypted versions of the new messages did not exist in the original data. Furthermore, a substantial proportion of the new messages remained unencrypted to this day.

Critically, the court was told that the processes used to provide Sky ECC data to the court were opaque and non-verifiable, and that there was no indication that police data analysis conformed with internationally accepted forensic standards. Moreover, the data files lacked critical digital fingerprints, file hashes, or digital signatures – essential measures to ensure that no accidental or deliberate changes could have been made to the digital evidence.

Beneath the surface of this controversy lies a sophisticated web tool called Edge, developed by Belgium's directorate for the fight against serious and organised crime (DJSOC). This platform was allegedly used to analyse Sky ECC data. Campbell's analysis found that Edge was not fit for purpose, had produced significant errors, and did not meet the standards required for criminal trials.

Defence lawyers argued that to complete their investigation into the reliability of the data, they would need access to the raw intercepted data from Sky ECC and information about the chain of custody of the data – which has not been disclosed by police. "There are problems," Reisinger said, "and we need to establish the reliability of the data. We asked for the raw data and an explanation from the police of the chain of evidence, but in the end, the court decided not to do it."

Prosecutors attempted to discredit Campbell by suggesting he was not independent, pointing to his previous work with a forensic expert from the UK's National Crime Agency. However, the court acknowledged Campbell's findings and stated that they would be taken into consideration – but ultimately refused to postpone the trial to allow further expert analysis of the reliability of the data.

The prosecution against El Hajjioui relies heavily on messages intercepted by French, Dutch, and Belgian police from a hacking operation into the Vancouver-based encrypted phone network, Sky ECC. This operation provided police with "real-time" access to messages exchanged between members of organised criminal groups after they attached a "man-in-the-middle" server to the Sky ECC infrastructure at the OVH Datacentre in Roubaix, France.

The reliability of Sky ECC evidence has been called into question by courts in Italy and Spain. Last week, an Italian court ordered prosecutors to make raw intercept data available to defendants, allowing them to conduct independent checks into the reliability of the evidence. Similarly, a provincial court in València acquitted 14 people after finding that prosecutors could not rely on digital evidence without access to the raw Sky ECC data.

The case against Nordin El Hajjioui is due to resume tomorrow, amidst growing concerns over the integrity of Sky ECC intercepts and their admissibility as evidence in court. Read more about the Sky ECC hacking operation [link] and stay updated on regulatory compliance and standard requirements [link].