> he would've been fine if he had wiped his phone prior to the flight.
This comment assumes rule of law (a.k.a. a government constrained by laws).
What if what we instead had was a government secretly tracking a dissident they didn't like, then searching them with a pretext and no legal justification.
What would have likely happened in that case, is that the government accuses him of destroying evidence anyways, because they're mad the search didn't turn up anything incriminating, and his life gets ruined fighting against their retaliation for years, with no consequences for the actual offenders.
This comment assumes rule of law (a.k.a. a government constrained by laws).
What if what we instead had was a government secretly tracking a dissident they didn't like, then searching them with a pretext and no legal justification.
What would have likely happened in that case, is that the government accuses him of destroying evidence anyways, because they're mad the search didn't turn up anything incriminating, and his life gets ruined fighting against their retaliation for years, with no consequences for the actual offenders.