SAUNDERS v. UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGE MARTENS, JOINED BY JUDGE KURIS 43 of fine or imprisonment, it would be compatible with the right to silence and the privilege against self-incrimination to allow the use of these statements as evidence against him at his trial16 (16). -B17. As already indicated in paragraph 2 above this is an important issue. Our modern societies are "information societies", also in the sense that all of us, government agencies as well as citizens, to a large extent depend on various kinds of information, notably on information provided by (other) citizens. This applies in particular to government agencies: countless administrative decisions – whether imposing a duty or granting a favour are based on such information. Information which simply cannot always be verified beforehand. One must, therefore, be able to rely on the veracity of such information. However, the old virtue of truthfulness has largely disappeared from modern morals. We have become "calculating citizens", putting our own interests above those of the community. No wonder that fraud in multiple forms is the bane of our societies: fraud in the field of taxes17 and social security, fraud in the field of governmental subventions, fraud in the environmental sphere (illegal disposal of dangerous waste), fraud in the sphere of the arms trade and drugs (money laundering), fraud in the corporate sphere which may imply any species of the other frauds just mentioned. Frauds that are all the more tempting since our computerised world with its manifold cryptographic devices makes it much easier to effectively hide them18. It is generally accepted, therefore, that the mere threat of penal and other sanctions does not suffice, but that regular random as well as special proactive audits, inspections and investigations by highly specialised agencies are indispensable for effectively combating such frauds. The auditors not only need expert knowledge, they also cannot do without "appropriate special powers"19. That normally includes not only the right to 16 So far I am in agreement with the Court: see paragraph 67 of its judgment. See Aronowitz, Laagland and Paulides, Value-Added Tax Fraud in the European Union (Kugler Publications, Amsterdam, 1996) and the addendum thereto, which on a comparative basis gives data on the methods of combating this kind of fraud in the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK and Germany. 18 "These shadow-accounts were maintained in special files, shielded by an impressive battery of passwords, software `bombs' and other defence mechanisms, and in theory at least could not be accessed through the main computer." Salman Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh. The committee which elaborated Recommendation No. R (95) 13 – see following note - noted "the expanding misuse by offenders of new telecommunication technologies and facilities, including cryptography". 19 Term borrowed from Committee of Ministers Recommendation No. R (95) 13 concerning problems of criminal procedural law connected with information technology. See on this recommendation: P. Csonka, Computer Law and Security Report 1996 (vol.12), 17