Parliament overrides president’s veto on surveillance bill

With 93 votes for and 21 against the Georgian Parliament has adopted the final draft of a law on surveillance overturning President Giorgi Margvelashvili’s veto.

Based on the law a covert surveillance agency will be established under the auspices of the State Security Service which will manage and oversee the surveillance of phone communications, computer systems, post-office transfers, covert audio, photo and video surveillance.

However, President Margvelashvili vetoed the bill mainly for two "shortcomings”:

• that the law does not guarantee the independence of the new surveillance agency that is planned to be established; and
• that there are "unjustified and unpredictable costs” that the bill imposes on communications companies.

As the parliament overrode his veto this Wednesday, Margvelashvili will have to sign the document in a week; however, if he refuses to do so, Parliamentary Chairperson Irakli Kobakhidze will do it in his stead.

The parliamentary majority prepared the new bill after the Constitutional Court struck down current legislation allowing police to have direct, unrestricted access to telecom operators’ networks to monitor communications unconstitutional last year.

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