Illegal access to a computer system is not justified by the exercise of the right of defense
27-09-2024
The case submitted to the Court of Cassazione for examination concerned the conduct of a woman convicted of having illegally accessed the bank account of her former spouse, against whom a separation case was pending, through the “home banking” system, by extracting a copy of the bank statements and securities dossier from the same.
According to the woman's defense, such access would have been justified – pursuant to art. 51 of the Criminal Code – by the need to acquire documentary elements in view of the presidential separation hearing.
The Court of Cassazione, in ruling on the appeal, considered the reasoning of the judges of merit to be correct, specifying that the cause of justification in question cannot be assessed as a sort of "blank exemption" that allows any right exercised in any way to be given prominence.
The judges of merit had in fact denied the woman recognition of the exemption of the exercise of a right, observing that in the civil separation proceedings the woman could have obtained knowledge of the patrimonial evidence of her husband by resorting to the provisions of art. 210 c.p.c., with the consequence that the conduct could not be considered the only means to be used for one's defense in civil proceedings.
According to the Court, in fact, the use of the commission of "crimes" as a tool to acquire elements to be used in court for one's defense must be considered as a borderline hypothesis, admissible only in the case in which that conduct is the only means to obtain the defense result.
Since the right of defense does not include the ability to illegally enter, even for defense purposes, into another person's computer system, the conduct carried out by the woman to support the request for maintenance, for herself and for her minor daughter, cannot be considered exculpatory, since she could have used the tools that the code of civil procedure provides to acquire documentation that is not available to the party, through the order of the judicial authority, pursuant to art. 210 c.p.c.
Court of Cassazione - criminal section V - hearing June 21, 2024 (dep. September 12, 2024), no. 34501
Related