The parliament has failed to reach agreement on a constitutional amendment on telephone surveillance, leaving unresolved both the question of legal wiretapping powers for police and the intelligence service and the concerns of those who argued the proposed reforms posed risks to privacy and human rights.
The matter has been referred to the incoming parliament.
The amendment required 38 votes — a constitutional majority. What appeared to be a gap of four votes ultimately proved far wider, as leaks emerged from almost all parties that had initially signalled support. Had the amendment been put to a vote it would not have passed. With parliamentary elections expected to significantly alter the composition of the House, the fate of the legislation remains unclear.
The Legal Affairs Committee met yesterday in the presence of the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the Justice Minister and the CIS Director, with three separate proposals on the table. No common ground was found. It was agreed the matter will remain with the committee and carry over to the new parliament.
The central point of disagreement throughout was the role of the Cyprus Intelligence Service (CIS) Director in initiating surveillance. Critics argued that allowing the CIS Director to initiate surveillance — even with subsequent notification of a Three-Member Committee or another authority — provided insufficient judicial oversight and created unacceptable risks to civil liberties. Supporters of the amendment countered that the existing constitutional framework leaves law enforcement without effective tools to combat organised crime.
Three proposals were considered and all failed. A lawyers’ proposal to establish an independent authority modelled on AADIPA to approve CIS Director surveillance requests — with approval to be given within 72 hours of surveillance beginning — was rejected, as the involvement of the CIS Director in initiating surveillance remained unacceptable to opposing MPs who argued it bypassed adequate judicial control. An amendment submitted by DISY MP Nikos Tornaritis to abolish the provision allowing telecommunications secrecy to be lifted without a judge’s authorisation was also rejected. A third proposal for the Three-Member Committee to approve CIS surveillance, which initially appeared to have a slim majority, ultimately also failed.
The failure was announced by AKEL MP and Legal Affairs Committee member Aristos Damianou, who said in a social media post that the amendment of Article 17 of the Constitution on surveillance will not be voted on in the last plenary of the current parliament.
Supporters of the amendment warned of significant practical consequences. Without it, police and the CIS will not be able to conduct telephone surveillance legally, and the two implementing bills that accompany the constitutional amendment will also not go to plenary. Proponents argued this leaves Cyprus as the only country in Europe without this tool for combating organised crime, and that the Cyprus FBI unit currently being formed will lack this capability from the outset, leaving it dependent on conventional intelligence-gathering methods. Those who opposed the amendment argued that the absence of robust judicial oversight made the proposed framework incompatible with fundamental rights guarantees.
The proposal to amend Article 17 originated from FBI experts invited by the government to advise on combating organised economic crime. In their report, the American experts warned that if the Constitution was not amended, the Police Financial Crimes Unit would continue conducting investigations without clear results on illegal financial activities and sanctions violations, particularly in cases where criminal intent must be proven.
Critics questioned whether the reforms recommended by the FBI experts adequately reflected European standards on privacy and the protection of communications.
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