In this context, I am prepared to accept the position of my colleague the President regarding the anchoring of minimal details of information that are required to be included in an application for a search warrant on a computer or a smart mobile phone (see paragraph 69 of her opinion). However, I do not believe that this will provide a necessary response to the difficulties that I have presented above - judicial oversight, no matter how important, is not the same as holding a hearing in the presence of both parties, and as we have come to know - even less detailed requirements, which the law now places before the investigating authorities for the purposes of such a request, have not been fulfilled many times.
As I have clarified in various criminal motions, and as I will expand below, not only do I believe that in most cases the interrogees - and sometimes even third parties - have the right to plead in a hearing on a request for a search warrant on a computer; but I am of the opinion that, as a rule, they should also be allowed to appeal the courts' decision on a request for such an order.
How to Object to a Search Order on a Computer
- Much has been written about the importance of the right to appeal a judgment, which constitutes a substantial and important pillar for the realization of the right to a fair trial. This is particularly in light of the need of the appeals mechanism for an authoritative interpretation of relevant provisions of the law, for the development of the law, and for the correction of errors that may occur in the decisions of the trial courts. And also in view of its contribution to the decision-making process in the trial court itself (see various motions filed by Shimon, at paragraph 36 of my judgment, and the references that appear therein).
It is not for nothing that there are those who see the right of appeal as a constitutional right, especially in view of its enshrinment in section 17 of the Basic Law: The Judiciary, which provides: