A US citizen and environmental activist Samuel Tunick, has been charged with allegedly destroying evidence after prosecutors accused him of providing federal agents with a passcode that erased the contents of his mobile phone during an airport interrogation….
A US citizen and environmental activist Samuel Tunick, has been charged with allegedly destroying evidence after prosecutors accused him of providing federal agents with a passcode that erased the contents of his mobile phone during an airport interrogation.
According to prosecutors, Tunick supplied US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers with a passcode while being questioned at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, triggering the deletion of data on the device.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The case has sparked debate over digital privacy and border searches, with Tunick’s lawyers arguing that his constitutional rights were violated during the interrogation.
“Officers were not permitted to disregard all constitutional protections afforded to Mr Tunick simply because he was at the border,” his lawyers said in a court filing.
The defence also insisted there was no evidence linking Tunick to any criminal activity, describing the phone search as an unlawful “fishing expedition” connected to his environmental activism.
If convicted, Tunick faces up to five years in prison.
The case is expected to test the scope of US authorities’ powers to search electronic devices at the country’s borders.
