Sky ECC distributor launched from French custody pending trial
Thomas Herdman, a Canadian businessman dealing with trial for his alleged position in distributing Sky ECC cryptophones, was granted launch by a Paris court docket on 26 June 2025, after coming into his fifth 12 months in pre-trial detention.
French, Belgian and Dutch police infiltrated servers belonging to Sky ECC, the world’s largest cryptophone community, and purchased an estimated 1.7 billion messages between June 2019 and March 2021, resulting in the arrests of a whole bunch of alleged drug traffickers in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Herdman is one in all greater than 30 people set to face trial in November 2026, accused of distributing encrypted Sky ECC units and thereby enabling organised felony networks.
In an unique interview with Pc Weekly, Herdman described an sudden change in tone throughout a bail listening to on 26 June 2025.
“As quickly as I walked into the room, my lawyer advised me one thing was up,” he mentioned. “The Canadian Embassy was in attendance for the primary time in the complete 4 years I used to be detained. They’d beforehand refused to go to court docket, saying that doing so would seem to intrude with one other nation’s authorized course of.”
“We are going to get new proof that the French instruction decide refused to get. We have now to show our innocence – there’s no presumption of innocence right here”
Thomas Herdman
Shortly after the listening to started, the prosecution requested that the court docket be cleared of public observers. Herdman’s lawyer suggested him to maintain his assertion quick.
Herdman appeared in court docket with seen facial accidents, which have been attributed to a current incident at Fleury-Mérogis jail. The French jail has not publicly commented on the incident.
Herdman mentioned: “The decide talked about me completely in a different way. He abruptly mentioned I used to be an important dad and a former aggressive skier and athlete … it felt surreal. The decide requested me about accidents I’d sustained in custody. I advised them what occurred, they usually appeared genuinely involved.”
Strict bail circumstances
Herdman was launched below strict judicial supervision. He should put on an digital bracelet and is topic to accommodate arrest every day from 6pm to 10am. He’s prohibited from contacting any co-accused and is confined to the Paris metropolitan space.
Bail phrases embody a monetary assure, reportedly totalling €80,000, with extra month-to-month funds of €5,000.
“I’ve to get right into a routine and ensure I observe all of the procedures and limitations,” mentioned Herdman. “It’s the French method – very difficult – and I simply hope I can handle it with out messing it up.
“There’s lots of strain on me to seek out cash and get all the pieces so as. Even the logistics of creating financial institution funds feels overwhelming. It’s the primary time in years I’ve accessed my accounts.”
Herdman believes the court docket’s choice was pushed by the size of time he had already spent on remand and the truth that his trial continues to be greater than 18 months away. “I confirmed with the Canadian authorities that no Canadian has ever been held in pre-trial detention this lengthy in France, aside from a terrorism case within the Eighties,” he mentioned.
The trial is about for November 2026 and will last as long as three months.
Now launched, Herdman intends to collect new proof and knowledgeable testimony to problem the prosecution. “We are going to get new proof that the French instruction decide refused to get. We have now to show our innocence – there’s no presumption of innocence right here. That’s simply the truth,” he mentioned.
“My attorneys plan to go to Canada and collect proof, do some interviews. I hope that the court docket will ultimately enable me to see my mom, however proper now I would like to remain in France till my trial.”
Regardless of being out of jail, Herdman describes the expertise as draining. “I want I may really feel blissful. However generally, I’m actually drained out. This has been one of many worst weeks in my life,” he mentioned.
“It’s unusual that popping out is meant to really feel good, and I wasn’t positive how I’d really feel after they allowed me out. However as quickly as my request was granted, a recent set of worries got here. I do really feel content material to be the place I’m sitting proper now, and never be in jail, although.”
His household, in the meantime, expressed reduction at his launch.
“We’re very relieved. It’s been a very long time,” mentioned his daughter, Julie Kawaii Herdman. “I’m so blissful my dad lastly will get to be outdoors. We didn’t know what to anticipate in any respect.”
Kawaii Herdman wrote in a public assertion that her father had been assaulted by the jail’s judicial officers earlier than his launch.
Based on her report, he was handcuffed, faraway from his cell with out rationalization and overwhelmed, leading to a black eye and a wound to the pinnacle. “He’s in extreme ache, bodily and mentally,” she wrote on X.
