The organization “Young Barristers” talks about the risk, that the Constitutional Court of Georgia will declare  the Law on Operative Investigative Activity, unconstitutional and appeals to the legislative and executive powers of the country to plan and implement all the  necessary actions in record of the     country’s security issues.

According to the lawyer of the “Young Barristers”, Lasha Tsibadze, it is inadmissible to ignore security systems of Georgia and adopt any decision, weakening their capabilities. It is important that the society was well-informed of the consequences, of what will happen, if in the circumstance of the current so called “double key” system, the State  loses opportunity to own one of the keys or if country’s security system is owned by foreign companies. Accordingly, Constitutional court decision should be well-substantiated, so that interpretation of the contested law, doesn’t become the subject to any political context or to the interests of any non-governmental organization.

According to the “Young Barristers”, the law on the so called “secret surveillance” is balanced and meets fundamental interests of both – to protect Human Rights and Freedoms and ensure state security and national interest as well. Taking into consideration the challenges, before the state of Georgia, it would be inadmissible to carry out operative investigative activities  by private companies. We can say, that there is no country in Europe with the similar system for operative activities. The guarantee of the State and public safety, due to it’s nature, is always the state, exercising it’s powers through appropriate Agencies. Fields, such as investigation, intelligence and operative activities, are specific by nature and accordingly, access to these fields is well-protected, confidential and secret in numbers of European countries. The field is directly linked to the issue of security. Therefore, any kind of active participation on behalf of the private companies, especially if these companies are foreign legal entities, threatens country’s security and public safety.  

Obviously, the “Young Barristers” doesn’t consider, that the state should enjoy unlimited powers in record of operative activities, and reject constitutional obligations of protecting human rights, including right to private life, free development of personality and privacy.   We believe, that no one is entitled to act beyond the limits of law and illegally intervene in the private lives of people. Any such case, occurred, should be identified and punished, even through functioning of so called “double-key” system. Announcement by certain group of the civil sector, that the law on the so called  “surveillance” continues unlawful practice of “secret listening”,  is not well-grounded. Accordingly, “This Affects You – They Are Still Listening” campaign, needs a healthy discussion of the issue and well-informing public of the law, real targets, supporters and opponents.  

For more information: the Ministry of Internal Affairs has preserved direct access to the means of secret surveillance, by maintaining so called a “key”. The second “key”, given to the Personal Data Protection Inspector, is valid for only secret telephone “listening”. As it was stated by the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Georgia: “the decision , made by court, will be as always, objective and based on the law.” This statement, due to the current understanding of the Constitutional Court, leaves an impression, that the law on the so called “secret surveillance”  is going to be declared unconstitutional.