International Legal Assistance and Judicial Authority over Unsealing Seized Documents

In a case concerning international legal assistance in criminal matters where a foreign prosecution requested the search and unsealing of documents seized under a domestic warrant, the court determined that the decision to unseal must be made by a judicial authority, assigning jurisdiction to itself as the appeal body against the prosecutor's decisions on seizure. The court reasoned that for unsealing seized and sealed documents received through legal assistance, the principles of the former Federal Code of Criminal Procedure concerning search and sealing, in conjunction with the International Legal Assistance Act, apply; consequently, the requesting authority must demonstrate the potential relevance of the documents to the foreign investigation and that their use via legal assistance is conceivable, though a concrete connection to each document is only required at the final decision stage concerning disclosure.