JUSTICE Minister Sophoclis Sophocleous yesterday backed calls for an amendment of the Law for the Protection of Personal Data that would enable police to access telephone records and internet logs to help in their inquiries.
Sophocleous was speaking after a meeting with Data Protection Commissioner Yioula Frangou, held to discuss the difficulties in resolving the recent murder of 41-year-old Roulla Panteli.
The minister said the law, which comes under Chapter 17 of the Cyprus Constitution, should be amended, with suitable safeguards for the citizen. He added that the positive consequences of such an amendment would seriously outweigh any negatives that could arise.
“I believe it is necessary, under specific and strict presuppositions, for telephone conversations to be monitored of people who are believed to be involved in crimes such as drug trafficking or murder,” said Sophocleous.
“We can’t have our cake and eat it,” he continued. “We understand the shadows that may be created by the alteration in the Constitution. But we have in front of us murders, we have drug trafficking, and we must look at this matter with great responsibility and seriousness. We must say that the positive consequences [of an amendment] are much higher than the negatives that could emerge.”
Frangou on her part the data protection law was not an obstacle in solving crimes. She explained that the law did not forbid the police from requesting information from the telecommunication company.
“A referral had wrongly been made that the weakness of police to resolve crimes was because the data protection law was an obstacle.
“In this incident [Panteli’s murder], it was not the conversation that the police needed, but possibly telephone numbers of those who had contacted the deceased woman or those who she contacted”, said Yiangou.
She went on, “The data protection law does not forbid the police to request the bill movements from the company that offers these services; it is Chapter 17 of the Constitution.”
Frangou said she and the minister had also discussed the implementation of a European Directive, which provides that telecommunications companies have to keep phone records and internet logs for two years and give them to police in cases of serious crime or terrorism.
“This is a directive we are obliged to implement in our justice system. First there needs to be an amendment to the Constitution, then a law should be implemented that will provide under which circumstances this information is handed out.”
