diff --git a/kordophone-db/src/models/message.rs b/kordophone-db/src/models/message.rs
index 92ffba7..4de27e2 100644
--- a/kordophone-db/src/models/message.rs
+++ b/kordophone-db/src/models/message.rs
@@ -23,15 +23,32 @@ impl Message {
 
 impl From<kordophone::model::Message> for Message {
     fn from(value: kordophone::model::Message) -> Self {
+        let sender_participant = match value.sender {
+            Some(sender) => Participant::Remote {
+                contact_id: None,
+
+                // Weird server quirk: some sender handles are encoded with control characters.
+                handle: sender.chars()
+                    .filter(|c| !c.is_control() && !matches!(c,
+                        '\u{202A}' | // LRE
+                        '\u{202B}' | // RLE  
+                        '\u{202C}' | // PDF
+                        '\u{202D}' | // LRO
+                        '\u{202E}' | // RLO
+                        '\u{2066}' | // LRI
+                        '\u{2067}' | // RLI
+                        '\u{2068}' | // FSI
+                        '\u{2069}'   // PDI
+                    ))
+                    .collect::<String>(),
+            },
+
+            None => Participant::Me,
+        };
+
         Self {
             id: value.guid,
-            sender: match value.sender {
-                Some(sender) => Participant::Remote {
-                    handle: sender,
-                    contact_id: None,
-                },
-                None => Participant::Me,
-            },
+            sender: sender_participant,
             text: value.text,
             date: DateTime::from_timestamp(
                 value.date.unix_timestamp(),
diff --git a/kordophoned/src/dbus/agent.rs b/kordophoned/src/dbus/agent.rs
index 755dbfd..81e17d6 100644
--- a/kordophoned/src/dbus/agent.rs
+++ b/kordophoned/src/dbus/agent.rs
@@ -279,8 +279,6 @@ impl DbusRepository for DBusAgent {
                         // Remove the attachment placeholder here.
                         let text = msg.text.replace("\u{FFFC}", "");
 
-                        log::debug!("sender: {:?}", msg.sender.clone());
-
                         map.insert("text".into(), arg::Variant(Box::new(text)));
                         map.insert(
                             "date".into(),
@@ -291,8 +289,6 @@ impl DbusRepository for DBusAgent {
                             arg::Variant(Box::new(self.resolve_participant_display_name(&msg.sender.into()))),
                         );
 
-
-
                         // Attachments array
                         let attachments: Vec<arg::PropMap> = msg
                             .attachments