Privacy watchdog asks to brief parliamentary panel on wiretaps
Greece’s privacy watchdog has asked to brief the parliament’s institutions and transparency committee on its findings regarding its investigation of the wiretapping scandal.
The request, submitted on Jan. 17 by the head of the independent Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE), Christos Rammos, to the of the president of the panel, Thanassis Bouras, “concerns informing the body on issues of public interest, which fall within the Authority’s competence.”
Based on Greek law, the institutions and transparency committee is the only body that can supervise the work of the country’s intelligence agency, EYP.
On Wednesday, Rammos asked Justice Minister Konstantinos Tsiaras and State Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis for clarifications on a new law passed by the government that removed ADAE’s right to inform citizens on whether they had been spied on by EYP, citing “ambiguities” in its provisions.
With the new law, citizens’ requests will now have to be submitted to a three-member body, made up of two prosecutors and Rammos.
