Parliamentary majority, minority disagree over law on surveillance

With 89 votes for and 20 against, the Georgian Parliament adopted a draft of a law today titled Covert Investigative Activities.

The bill prepared by the parliamentary majority aims to establish an agency under the auspices of the State Security Service which will be in charge of covert surveillance of phone communication, computer systems, post office transfers and secret audio, photo and video surveillance.

Currently, covert surveillance operations are carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Personal Data Protection Inspector (PDPI) of Georgia. Under current legislation, the PDPI must give its consent to government agencies requesting permission to undertake surveillance operations.

First Vice Speaker of Parliament of Georgia and Georgian Dream party member Tamar Chugoshvili finds the new draft "balanced”.

However, parliamentary opposition European Georgia members do not agree with the idea that the State Security Service should control the surveillance apparatus of the country.

The party believes the new law will "rudely interfere with people’s personal lives”.

Mobile communication companies Magti, Geocell, Beeline and Silknet also attended the discussions.

Director General of Magti Gia Jokhtaberidze thinks the proposed changes will cause financial damage to his company and to those of his competitors because the new agency will be entitled to fine mobile operators should they fail to comply with requests to submit personal data of their customers.

Ana Dolidze Parliamentary Secretary of President Giorgi Margvelashvili finds the draft anti-constitutional: she says the proposed changes will hinder the independence of the new agency if it will be established under the State Security Service.

Parliamentary discussions over the proposed changes continue.