Privacy watchdog cannot investigate phone taps, says top court prosecutor
Recent legislative changes introduced in the wake of the phone-tapping scandal mean that the independent Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE) no longer has the authority to respond to requests by citizens regarding whether they were put under surveillance for national security reasons, a Supreme Court prosecutor said in an opinion issued on Tuesday.
According to Isidoros Dogiakos, jurisdiction for such matters has passed to a three-member panel made up of two prosecutors and the head of the ADAE, which is responsible for examining such requests on a case-by-case basis.
The Supreme Court prosecutor issued his opinion on a request by OTE telecoms, lodged in the wake of a visit to its headquarters by an ADAE team investigating the wiretapping of the telephones of independent European lawmaker Giorgos Kyrtsos and investigative journalist Tasos Telloglou. After the audit, sources later confirmed to AP that decrees had indeed been issued for lifting the confidentiality of their phone communications.
Under the new law, Dogiakos said, ADAE “no longer has the authority to investigate suppliers and provide an answer to the affected individual.”
