Georgian Parliament approves, in second reading, package of laws on secret shadowing

Despite protests of the opposition, Georgian MPs have adopted a package of bills on introduction of a new system of secret surveillance and wiretapping.

The amendments provide for the creation of a new structure in Georgia – the Operative-Technical Agency under the State Security Service (SSS) of Georgia. The agency will have access to all means of local and global communication, and users’ databases.

The secret surveillance will be carried out only with the permission of the court at the request of the prosecutor, or by order of a Judge of the Supreme Court. According to the latest version of the bill package, the agency will be accountable not only to the Government but also to the Parliament of Georgia, the edition "Sputnik-Georgia" reports.

According to the edition, the ruling party has taken into account the discontent of the major communication companies – the Magti, Geocell and Beeline. As a result, the above agency will have no right to impose the commitment on them to install special equipment and maintain it.

The employees of the agency should not work for the SSS and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). They will not only tap telephone conversations, but also watch out for Internet communications, and mail and telegraph, the "Georgia-Online" reports.

At the same time today, the MPs from the "European Georgia" refused to discuss the bills and left the sitting.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.