Source: in-cyprus.philenews.com
The Justice and Public Order Ministry has sent a bill permitting telephone surveillance for organised crime prevention and national security purposes to the Law Office for technical review, officials confirmed on Wednesday.
The legislation, which would allow police and intelligence services to monitor telephone conversations under strict conditions, is expected to proceed to parliament once legal checks are completed.
“This surveillance capability will contribute to crime prevention, but primarily to solving cases like the recent murder of Stavros Demosthenous,” a ministry spokesperson said.
Although parliament originally passed the law in 2020, it was never implemented due to technical and legal issues that could have jeopardised criminal prosecutions based on evidence gathered through surveillance.
The main delay stemmed from Cyprus’s telecommunications providers – Cyta, Cablenet, Epic and Primetel – lacking necessary technical equipment to allow police and intelligence services access to their systems for monitoring calls. These technical issues were finally resolved last November.
However, concerns remained about the process for issuing surveillance warrants. To prevent potential court challenges that could collapse criminal cases built on telephone evidence, officials determined the legislation needed additional safeguards before implementation.
Under the 2020 law, each service provider must maintain appropriate infrastructure and software for connection with authorities.
The legislation requires providers to “immediately provide necessary facilities to the Chief of Police and/or the Commander of the Cyprus Intelligence Service” when executing duties authorised by judicial warrant.
Providers and their employees must also take technical and organisational measures to ensure privacy and confidentiality of communications outside authorised surveillance activities.
Discussions between the government and mobile phone providers addressed critical issues including data storage locations, retention periods, and other technical matters that had previously prevented the law’s implementation.
The phone-tapping authorisations will be granted through court warrants issued against suspects in specific serious criminal investigations, including premeditated murder, manslaughter, corruption, terrorism, espionage, human trafficking, drug trafficking, child pornography, and money laundering.