The Georgian parliament left the Ministry of Internal Affairs the opportunity to listen to telephone conversations of citizens

The ruling Georgian Dream coalition managed to override the president's veto on the high-profile law on wiretapping citizens' telephone conversations, thereby leaving in force the option under which the Ministry of Internal Affairs retains the possibility of technical access to the networks of mobile operators. Despite the entry into force of the law, NGOs and influential lawyers plan to appeal to the Constitutional Court of Georgia, and then to the ECHR.

Parliament overcame the presidential veto on the law on wiretapping ( see “Kommersant” on November 28 ) by 82 votes to 13, with the required minimum of 76 votes. To do this, the parliamentary majority from the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) coalition had to declare a real mobilization. “Now all the deputies who support our bill are in the hall,” Majority Leader David Saganelidze said during the debate.

First, members of parliament voted for an alternative option initiated by the president. Having vetoed the law adopted on November 27, Giorgi Margvelashvili proposed transferring technical access to mobile operator networks (key) to the court. According to the presidential option, the court issues legal permission to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to wiretap, and the judge himself “turns the key,” opening the line of technical access to the system. But the head of state's proposal did not receive enough votes.

Then the law prepared by the parliamentary committees on defense and security and human rights, which was vetoed by the head of state, was put to a vote again. The Republican Party, part of the ruling coalition, voted against it. “We supported the project of the legal committee, according to which the key was transferred to the National Communications Commission,” the founder of the Republican Party, Levan Berdzenishvili, explained to Kommersant.

But ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili’s comrades in his United National Movement (UNM) party did not take part in the voting at all. UNM deputy David Darchiashvili made it clear that their party does not support any of the options proposed to parliament. “We are close only to the NPO’s proposal to transfer the key to mobile operators, and to no one else,” he explained to Kommersant.

However, the NGO’s proposal was rejected by the ruling coalition as unacceptable from the point of view of state security. “Of the three Georgian mobile operators, one belongs to a Russian company, the second to a Turkish company, and the third to an American company,” Irakli Sesiashvili, chairman of the Defense and Security Committee, explained to Kommersant. “Giving them the key to wiretapping meant giving them access to very important state secrets.” "

As a result, after overcoming the veto, the law adopted on November 27 remained in force: technical access (key) to the networks of mobile operators remained with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and intelligence services will be able to listen to telephone conversations of citizens with the approval of the court under the control of a personal data protection inspector - a government official appointed by the prime minister .

NGOs are not happy with this option. They announced the resumption of protests under the slogan “We are being bugged again!” and appealed to the constitutional court with a claim to declare the law “violating human rights,” that is, unconstitutional. In addition, the famous lawyer Lia Mukhashavria, who worked on alternative options, intends to file a lawsuit against the Georgian government in the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights.

Georgiy Dvali, Tbilisi

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Wiretaps will reach Strasbourg