IN THE wake of DISY deputy Christos Pourgourides’ claims that the secret service monitored communications during the Clerides administration, media reports said yesterday that phone tapping was still going on with the same equipment procured back in 2001.
According to Politis, in 1999 the KYP intelligence agency took an interest in surveillance equipment capable of intercepting telephony communications, including cellular phones using GSM technology. When informed by CyTA (Telecommunications Authority) that such gadgets were available, the secret service submitted a request to the government for the purchase.
Two years later, the surveillance equipment was procured through direct negotiations between the government and manufacturers PK Electronic International, a corporation based in Germany. Two devices were eventually bought, costing some £150,000 each. No tenders procedures were necessary, since the law states that exceptions can be made for expenditures that are under a certain amount.
The devices were ordered and sent over from Germany. But customs officials reportedly refused to release them, apparently citing legislation that prohibits their use in Cyprus. So the equipment was shipped back.
According to Politis, KYP agents later traveled to Germany and brought back the devices in their suitcases, sneaking them past customs at the airport.
Although not cutting-edge, the portable surveillance units have the capability of deciphering phone conversations and a cellular’s number. According to Politis, those acquired by KYP need to be close to a mobile telephony relay station in order to home in a phone. Therefore, they need to be set up at a predetermined location so as to extract information from the target phone.
The devices do this by breaking down algorithms — mathematical instructions — used to encode phone conversations.
The daily’s report came after Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides categorically denied authorities possessed any such equipment. Chrysostomides added the government had full respect for civic liberties and was not tracking individuals.
PK Electronic International appeared on Privacy International’s 1995 report. Privacy International is a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations.
An independent, non-government organisation, PI has conducted campaigns and research throughout the world on issues ranging from wiretapping and national security, to ID cards, video surveillance, data matching, medical privacy, and freedom of information and expression.
The organisation annually holds what it calls its “Big Brother Awards,” listing corporations most likely to have violated privacy laws.
The government’s denial was in response to Pourgourides’ assertion that the Clerides administration acquired surveillance equipment that was used for purposes other than national security. And on Monday DISY boss Nicos Anastassiades confirmed that such surveillance “unfortunately” took place both in the past and in the present.
And when the affair broke out socialist EDEK said that the Attorney-general should look into the matter, but yesterday no more similar calls were heard.
Ostensibly, the controversial document that was published by Pondiki was intercepted either as an email or fax on its way DISY headquarters in Nicosia.
