Justice minister to return phone tapping bill to parliament

Justice Minister Costas Fitiris informed the House finance committee on Monday that the ministry will resubmit the issue of intercepting telephone conversations to parliament. Fitiris did not clarify as to whether the bill’s substance would be altered or return in its original format. He pointed to Greece, which he said had succeeded against organised crime due to its “increased surveillance powers”. The proposal has stalled before, as although parliament passed a phone-tapping law in 2020, it was never implemented because telecommunications providers lacked the technical capacity and officials had concerns about the warrant process. The cabinet approved a revised bill in February, and the government later sought a constitutional amendment to Article 17, which protects the secrecy of communications. Such a change would require 38 votes in the House to pass. Police attempts to secure interception powers date back to the Clerides government, which drafted similar legislation that the House never approved. The intelligence service (Kyp) has long been able to set up wiretaps on national security grounds, but material gathered that way could not be used in court as it was obtained illegally. When the cabinet approved the revised bill on February 13, President Nikos Christodoulides described it as “a necessary and proportionate” tool against serious crime. The bill limits monitoring to cases involving a court warrant and a set period, and covers offences including premeditated murder, corruption, terrorism, espionage, human trafficking, drug trafficking and money laundering. Mobile providers Cyta, Cablenet, Epic and Primetel have since installed the required infrastructure. In March, the House legal affairs committee examined a package that included the constitutional amendment. Attorney-general George Savvides called surveillance “a superweapon” for the state and said criminal cases would still require a court order, while national security matters could be approved in writing by the AG. The proposals also provided for up to ten years in prison for unlawful surveillance and a three-member supervisory committee. Akel MP Andreas Pasiourtides questioned the need for wider powers, pointing out that the 2020 mechanism had never been used. Civil liberties groups and digital rights advocates have warned that expanded powers could erode privacy. On April 2, Akel MP Aristos Damianou said the committee had agreed the amendment would not go to a plenary vote with the outgoing parliament. By then the government’s bill had shifted so that the intelligence service chief would authorise access and inform a three-member committee within 72 hours, while Disy planned to restore the court warrant requirement.