Tuesday, January 21 2020 12:07

ArmInfo.Armenian police will be given the opportunity to independently listen to telephone conversations of citizens passing as suspects in a particular case.  The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia at the meeting on  January 21 in the second and final reading amended the law "On  Operational Investigation Activities".

According to the co-author of the presented document, deputy of the  National Assembly from My Step faction Armen Khachatryan, taking into  account the operational-search powers of the police and the  availability of an operational-technical specialized unit, the bill  proposes at the legislative level to allow monitoring and wiretapping  of citizens' telephone calls using available technical means. In  this, according to the deputy, it will be possible to save the time  spent on contacting the National Security Service to ensure that they  have the required funds, and to carry out organizational work. The  parliamentarian also explained that today the police are forced to  make a similar request to the SNB, which already has a busy schedule.  According to Armen Khachatryan, this bill will allow, to a certain  extent, to remove from the SNB a number of obligations that are not  within its powers, which will reduce the level of workload,  increasing its efficiency.

In turn, the Deputy Minister of Justice of Armenia Srbuhi Galyan  noted that the adoption of this bill entails enormous financial  costs. So, in her words, the Armenian Police will have to be provided  with all the technical equipment necessary for wiretapping. Galyan  also said that work is underway on a draft new Code of Criminal  Procedure, the adoption of which also implies changes in the criminal  justice system.  "Additions will also be made to the law on  operational search activities," the deputy minister explained.