Associated Press: European Court: Bulgarian wiretapping laws violate human rights – 2024-04-11 02:17:35

/ world today news/ Link The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Bulgarian legislation on secret surveillance violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Strasbourg court was asked to evaluate Bulgaria’s 1997 surveillance law, as well as several articles of the country’s criminal code.

The court said in a statement on Tuesday that the “legislation governing covert surveillance does not meet the requirement of quality of law” in the European Convention on Human Rights and the Bulgarian government is “incapable of maintaining surveillance only to the extent necessary. “

According to the court’s decision, the laws in Bulgaria that regulate wiretapping and surveillance are of poor quality and cannot guarantee that interference in the private lives of citizens meets the criteria of a democratic society.

The case was filed by two Bulgarian lawyers, Mikhail Ekemdzhiev and Alexander Kashamov, and two human rights groups in 2012, but was updated with new evidence of covert surveillance over the past decade.

Last year, a special parliamentary commission revealed one of the largest wiretapping schemes in Bulgaria’s history. It found that the telephone conversations of more than 900 citizens – including journalists, politicians and human rights activists – were tapped during the months-long anti-corruption protests that eventually led to the fall of Bulgaria’s centre-right government.

In its ruling on Tuesday, the European Court of Justice said that “the lack of clear regulation has led to a situation where surveillance data can be used for nefarious purposes.” He called on Bulgaria to change its laws with new legislation compatible with the human rights convention.

Translation: SM