Bulgarian Socialists: 95% of Wiretaps Did Not Reach Court

Bulgaria’s Parliament adopted Wednesday an annual report of the Parliamentary Subcommittee for Special Surveillance Devices Control. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

95% of the special surveillance devices have not reached court and are not used for convictions, according to Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

Bulgarian socialists claimed Wednesday that special surveillance equipment was used to fight political and business opponents.

Bulgaria's Parliament adopted a report of the Parliamentary Subcommittee for Special Surveillance Devices Control showing the gap between the number of wiretap applications and the number of cases where wiretapping information was used as evidence in court.

Maya Manolova, MP from the Bulgarian Socialist party (BSP), noted that 95% of wiretaps did not reach court and were not used for convictions.

She made clear that the efficiency of wiretap use had decreased ten-fold.

Manolova went on to suggest that special surveillance devices were being used for political goals and against political opponents during the term in office of the center-right GERB government.

In 2011, nearly 8000 Bulgarians were wiretapped, up by 30% from 2010, according to the report.

Lyutvi Mestan, Deputy Chair of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party, argued that special surveillance devices were turning into a main instrument for exerting political and police brutality.

Mestan said that the submitted wiretap applications were a cover-up for spying on other people for whom no permit could be obtained.

He insisted that statistics could not present correct data because they did not include "indirectly wiretapped people."

Mestan suggested that magnetic and paper-based data carriers had to be destroyed simultaneously.

According to the report, wiretap applications by Bulgaria's Interior Ministry increased by 26% year on year in 2011.

Bulgarian courts received around 13 900 wiretap permits and the rejections were only 116.

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