Djandieri: Georgian legislation is not yet able to protect citizens from secret surveillance

The Georgian has reported creation of a commission to monitor the destruction of the archive with secret recordings of citizens' private life. However, in the opinion of the Deputy Minister of Justice David Djandieri and NGO activists, in order to protect citizens from the uncontrolled collection of personal data is necessary to make a number of amendments to the national legislation.

Let us remind you that the archive of secret audio and video records of citizens' private life was discovered at the MIA after the arrival of the coalition "Georgian Dream" to power in October 2012. Then, the MIA announced its intention to destroy the archive within a week.

According to the president of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili, in order to protect citizens' private life, it is necessary to specify in detail in the law the types of secret investigating actions and the reasons for which a permission can be issued to make secret audio and video recordings. He proposes to allow covert recordings in cases of grave and especially grave crimes, when the evidence cannot be obtained by other means, or receiving of them is associated with significant challenges. This was reported by Dimitri Dzagnidze, the Parliamentary Secretary of President of Georgia, on May 24 at a conference on the problems of secret surveillance.

In its turn, the "Transparency International-Georgia" recommends that the Government sets up a commission, which will hold a record of all the illegally collected materials and destroy them, and create effective mechanisms for oversight of human rights organizations to prevent abuse of the right to make secret recordings.