Plenum to vote on bill allowing police to use phone surveillance

A bill allowing authorities to conduct phone surveillance will be put to the vote on January 17 after MPs on Wednesday agreed on certain last-minute amendments submitted by the government, which had led to postponement of the vote early in December.

The bill had been set to be discussed by the plenum on December 6 but the House legal affairs committee unanimously decided to postpone it after the justice ministry submitted several last-minute changes concerning technical matters.

The majority of MPs on the committee accepted the amendments after the state services involved provided the necessary explanations, committee chairman Disy MP Giorgos Georgiou said after the meeting.

“These explanations have been given today in detail and as the legal affairs committee we have accepted them by majority and they will be incorporated in the bill,” he said.

Allowing phone surveillance has been a long-standing demand by the authorities.

Current legislation allows them to monitor and gather written electronic communications of persons of interest, including emails and messages on Viber, Skype, Whatsapp and Facebook.

The bill provides for a request to be put to court asking for an order allowing surveillance. The request will be made by the attorney-general who would have received a written application from the police or the secret service containing a report of the situation, the identity of the person and the duration of the wiretap.

The surveillance will be carried out by authorised members of the police or the secret service.

 

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