The legislation is yet to be signed into law by President Vaclav Klaus. Under the amendment, the court will have to examine whether the police can get the evidence in a different way than by wiretapping, which is a serious intervention in privacy, Justice Minister Jiri Pospisil (the Civic Democratic Party, ODS) said. At present, the permit must only contain the data on the phone in question, but it will have to include the identity of the person in question and the circumstances of the case. The wiretapping is to be newly permitted by the district court, while its prolongation will be submitted for a decision by the regional court. The maximum deadline for ordered wiretapping Justice ministry under fire for role in Qatari prince case ...
Course of Czech court proceedings available on Internet ... is shortened from six to four months. The legislation also redrafts the rules for "voluntary wiretapping" given by the people concerned when kidnapping, child trafficking, blackmail or curtailment of personal freedom are investigated. The police thus can shadow the conversation of the kidnapper who calls the parents of the abducted child. If the wiretapping is not used as evidence, the state attorney or judge will have to inform the person in question that he was wiretapped, on whose order and for how long. The wiretapped person will have six months to ask the Supreme Court to examine whether the wiretapping was legal. The government argued that it wanted to limit excessive wiretapping.
Last year, the police used about 5500 wiretappings, while the numbers were 7800 in 2006 and 10,000 in 2004.
(Ceske Noviny)
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