POLITICIANS yesterday stepped up their exchanges on explosive allegations that corrupt employees inside state telecom CyTA were selling private communications information for a price.
On Wednesday, the Cabinet gave the go-ahead to police to investigate the case. It was daily Politis that broke the story on Monday.
According to the paper, a group of CyTA employees were selling this information to well-connected police officers and private detectives, and this had been going on for some time.
The information illegally disclosed included the calls made and received by the person “under surveillance”, the time and date of the calls, the person’s location at the time of the calls, the duration of the calls, SMS, in some cases a written transcript of the conversation, and even the identity number of the caller.
Article 17 of the Constitution prohibits access to communications, except in the event of bankruptcy or imprisonment. Thus monitoring emails, text messages or phone calls is not allowed, because this is considered correspondence or communication. However, tracking a person’s internet activity – such as in child pornography – is allowed, as this is not interpreted as communication.
CyTA, the organisation caught in the eye of the storm, has also launched an internal probe, but serious doubts have been cast on whether the organisation can effectively investigate itself.
Earlier this week, CyTA chairman Stavros Kremmos claimed it would be extremely difficult to weed out the one or two “rogue elements” out of the thousands of employees.
But observers say that only a limited number of employees could have a high level of clearance, allowing access to such sensitive data, which should narrow down the list of possible suspects.
In the wake of the allegations, Kremmos had tendered his resignation, but it was not accepted by the government.
Yesterday it was revealed that the police would be assisted in their investigations by a team of CyTA technicians.
This has raised even more misgivings as to the success of the probe, since it would require the technicians to track down and report on work colleagues.
Meanwhile opposition leader Nicos Anastassiades has stoked the fires of controversy, saying phone tapping is more widespread than initially thought.
When the scandal first broke out, Anastassiades had maintained that his phone was being monitored. He had also revealed that he and fellow politicians were so worried that they had switched to pay-as-you-go cards when talking on their mobile.
Yesterday the DISY chief became more specific, saying that there existed two “agencies” in Cyprus that monitored phone conversations.
Since one of these agencies was CyTA, the other was understood to be the secret service.
“I know a whole lot more than what I have allowed myself to say in public,” quipped Anastassiades.
“And anyone who says that politicians’ communications are not being watched must be na?ve,” he added.
For his part, EDEK leader Yiannakis Omirou put the onus on CyTA.
“CyTA has been exposed by this affair,” he said.
