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CSAT to hold meeting this Friday
The Presidential Administration confirms that the National Defence Supreme Council (CSAT) will meet Friday to discuss the decision of the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) on phone tapping.
According to the source, after the CSAT meeting, President Klaus Iohannis will hold a press conference.
The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) has ruled that no legal provisions in force, except for one article of the Criminal Procedure Code, expressly designate any state authority, other than the public prosecution and the specialized police officers, as authorized to intercept communications or enforce technical surveillance mandates.
The Court believes that relevant legislation can only be made via proper laws, not by normative acts with an administrative character, adopted by bodies other than the legislative authority, the CCR argued in support of its decision to rule that the phrase "other specialized state bodies", included in the article regulating phone tapping, was unconstitutional.
The CCR plenum ruled on February 16 by majority vote that provisions included in the Code of Criminal Procedure ruling that technical surveillance requested by prosecutors can be made not only "by the criminal investigation body or specialized police staff", but also by "other specialized state bodies", was in breach of the Romanian Constitution.
Constitutional Court President Augusting Zegrean defended on Thursday a Court's decision on phone tapping, saying it will not free any offender.
The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) has ruled that no legal provisions in force, except a single article of the Criminal Procedure Code, expressly designates any state authority, other than the public prosecution and the specialized police officers, as authorized to intercept communications or enforce technical surveillance mandates. The Code also allows "other specialized state bodies" to do this, and the relevant article was found unconstitutional.
"You can be sure no perpetrator will escape punishment due to this decision. Neither those who already got final sentences, nor those to be sentenced in the future. (...) No one escapes due to this decision, because criminal prosecution was made even before tapping existed, and criminal prosecution will always be carried out, and the law stipulates who must do it. Did you know that in England interception cannot be used as trial evidence? And no one has been convicted, I think, based solely on one tapping. If the tapping is not supported by evidence, no one can be convicted," Zegrean told the Realitatea TV private broadcaster.
He stressed that interception instruments belong to the state, and it remains to decided who uses them.
"What happened before the [CCR] decision is done; what follows after the decision will be different. And the world does not change, does not collapse after the decision. Just the criminal prosecution will be carried out by those who have to carry it out, namely the prosecutors and the judiciary police. We didn't cause a disaster with this decision," Zegrean insisted.
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Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) Director Eduard Hellvig says that a Constitutional Court decision on wiretapping definitely has an impact on national security; it will affect criminal cases in various judiciary stages, especially those concerning crimes against national security.
The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) has ruled that no legal provisions in force, except a single article of the Criminal Procedure Code, expressly designates any state authority, other than the public prosecution and the specialized police officers, as authorized to intercept communications or enforce technical surveillance mandates. The Code also allows "other specialized state bodies" to do this, and the relevant article was found unconstitutional.
"Therefore, in the criminal trial, crimes such as spying, treason, terrorism, cross-border organized crime, counter-proliferation, cyber-crime, and not least big corruption acts, which are serious threats to national security, can no longer be proved using the complex technical means developed by the SRI,'' Hellvig is quoted in a release on the service's website.
He also mentioned that the SRI will abide by the CCR decision, and assured the partner institutions of the continued full support of the intelligence service.
''I am convinced that all the other institutions have the maturity and responsibility to compensate this drawback. (...) I think it is my duty as director to make sure that in the near future the Romanian Intelligence Service adapts to the action guidelines in relation with the challenges of the security environment, aiming at the fulfiment of all the security goals, with the strict observation of the legal provisions in force," Hellvig concluded.