Overview

• The Federal Constitutional Court declined to admit a complaint (2 BvR 625/25) and found no constitutional obstacle to using Anom messages as evidence under the principle of mutual trust.
• In the underlying case, a man convicted in Mannheim largely on Anom chats saw his sentence overturned by the Federal Court of Justice due to changes in cannabis law, not because of the chat evidence.
• The decision, dated September 23 and published October 1, notes no indications that foreign authorities violated rule‑of‑law standards, and it deemed knowledge of the specific EU host state and its orders nonessential for admissibility.
• Separate reporting by FAZ, shared with Yle and 15min, cites documents indicating the server was in Lithuania and that a Vilnius judge may have been misled about the FBI’s role—material the Karlsruhe judges did not have.
• The FBI’s operation involved about 12,000 devices and millions of messages, underpinning roughly 860 German investigations and over 300 convictions; experts say the new revelations could prompt reopening motions and possibly ECHR bids, though hurdles remain high.