Cellphone ruling appealed in Israel

Haaretz reports here on an effort by military prosecutors to persuade the Supreme Court of Israel to reverse a controversial ruling of the Military Court of Appeals on cellphone searches. Excerpt:

In a highly unusual move, the military prosecution is seeking to appeal to the Supreme Court against a ruling by the Military Court of Appeals which held that searching a soldier’s cellphone in a computer laboratory without a warrant is illegal, even if the soldier consents. 

The prosecution asked the Supreme Court for permission to file the appeal on Tuesday. Its request was backed by State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan, since the ruling has implications for civilian cases as well as military ones. The court will now have to decide whether or not to let the appeal go forward. 

The reason why the military court’s ruling could affect civilian investigations is because the regular police have adopted Military Police protocols for searching phones without a warrant if the suspect consents.