The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Thursday ordered the release of a man held in jail for four years for civil contempt.

Francis Rawls was incarcerated in 2015 for failing to provide the passwords to electronic devices in compliance with a decryption order. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued the order as Rawls was under investigation by the the Delaware County Criminal Investigations Unit and Department of Homeland Security for possession of child pornography. Rawls refused to comply with the order, arguing that it violated his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The Third Circuit originally upheld the order when Rawls appealed. Shortly thereafter, the district court granted the government’s motion to hold him in civil contempt and incarcerated until he complied with the order.

Appealing his incarceration, Rawls argued that 28 USC § 1826(a) on recalcitrant witnesses means the government could not incarcerate him for civil contempt for longer than 18 months. The Third Circuit Court determined that for the purposes of the statute he counted as a “witness” and thus could not be incarcerated for longer than 18 months. The court stated that if the government wanted to continue to confine Rawls for possessing child pornography then they should charge him with the crime.

In a concurring opinion, a circuit judge questioned the government’s tactics as they already possessed enough evidence to convict Rawls. In the dissent, another circuit judge argued that § 1826(a) does not apply to Rawls because he had not been charged with a crime and thus had not been brought before a court as a “witness.”