CYPRUS DROPS PLAN TO LET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE WIRETAP WITHOUT COURT ORDER - in-cyprus 31/3 by Michalis Chatzivasilis
The Democratic Rally (DISY) has failed to secure enough votes to pass a constitutional amendment granting the head of intelligence service KYP the power to order wiretaps without a court order — with the revolt coming from within its own parliamentary ranks.
The bill required a two-thirds majority of 38 MPs. That threshold was never going to be met: AKEL’s 14 MPs were already opposed, joined by MPs Alexandra Attalidou and Charalampos Theopemptou.
DISY MP Nikos Sykas is not participating, and further DISY members have signalled they will not back the change. The government is understood to believe the bill’s timing — coinciding with the parliamentary election period — has worked against it.
With the numbers against him, DISY MP Nikos Tornaritis tabled an amendment that cuts to the heart of the dispute: strip out the wiretap-without-warrant clause entirely.
If approved, all interception of communications — whether for national security or organised crime — would require a court order. This had been AKEL’s position from the start, though three attempts were made to find a middle ground before the proposal collapsed.
The most recent compromise, reached last Friday, would have allowed the KYP director to initiate surveillance and notify a three-member oversight committee within 72 hours for retrospective approval.
An emergency session of the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee has been called for Thursday at 8:30am, with the Attorney General, Justice Minister Costas Fytiris, and other officials attending to examine the Tornaritis amendment. If the minister tables no alternative, the amendment is expected to pass — though the source warned that surprises at Thursday’s plenary could not be ruled out.
The Bar Association of Cyprus played a decisive role in the bill’s unravelling. Initially silent, it came out publicly against the amendment to Article 17 of the Constitution after conducting a study of rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, the EU Court of Justice, and other bodies on communications interception.
It submitted those findings to parliament and argued that bypassing the courts to lift communications secrecy was unconstitutional. Prominent legal experts took the same position publicly.
