(Podgorica, 15 December 2011) – MANS demands that the police be immediately stripped of their self-imposed illegal powers, which enable it to interpret the prosecutor’s orders according to its needs and use collected operational data without any control or oversight. Furthermore, we believe that given all of the abuses that were recently committed someone will have to be held responsible within the Police Department.
Direct and unrestricted access to data – without a warrant or the oversight of the prosecutor’s office and the courts – was made possible due to the infamous illegal police agreements concluded with telecommunications operators active in Montenegro.
MANS has for years been pointing out that these agreements are illegal. This was confirmed by the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and the Basic Court in Podgorica. Several examples have demonstrated that the use of these illegal agreements has enabled their abuse by the police and the subsequent violation of individual human rights.
This is best illustrated by the “Listing” affair and the findings of the Council for Civilian Control of the Police that the police had violated the law and the rights of Vanja Ćalović when, without a warrant, it summoned her to a hearing on 1 July 2011 (where she was expected to explain who posted the video from controversial businessman Safet Kalić’s wedding online).
First, the “Listing” affair confirms that the police has for years been collecting information on citizens without informing the prosecutor. Furthermore it indicates that numerous people had access to the databases of telecommunications operators and that the Police Department retained data collected in this way indefinitely.
On the other hand, the Council for Civilian Control of the Police found that the Police Department had violated the law and Vanja Ćalović’s rights. That is, it illegally, without limits and control of the courts, availed itself of data belonging to MANS.
The Council has established the false nature of the police director’s claim that in the Ćalović incident they were acting at the request of the State Prosecutor’s office in Bijelo Polje. From the available documentation it is clear that the request was forwarded to the police nearly a year prior to Ćalović being summoned for a hearing (i.e. on 6 August 2010). In that request there is nothing that requires collecting information from Vanja Ćalović, MANS or any other individual associated with MANS.
During the hearing with Ćalović inspectors claimed that they had access to all of the internet communications undertaken from MANS’ computers. They also requested information on who was responsible for posting the Safet Kalić video to YouTube.
Therefore, it is obvious that the police on their own initiative – and without a court or a prosecutor’s warrant – illegally collected data on the online communications of MANS activists, thus violating their rights to privacy.
On the other hand, the Police Director Veselin Veljović, despite opposition from Vanja Ćalović, was granted legitimacy by the National Commission for the Fight Against Corruption and Organized Crime for his obviously false claim that the police does not misuse its comprehensive access to telecommunications data.
Now MANS’ activists – following the lead established by Prime Minister Igor Lukšić – will urgently seek an investigation into what led to policing abuses in their own case. Such an investigation should be made a priority since all citizens in Montenegro have the right to know why their rights are being violated and who will answer for them.
We experience Veselin Veljović’s promise that because of the “Listing” affair he will leave his position as pure hypocrisy and an abdication of his responsibility for violating and abusing the rights of Montenegro’s citizens who are not senior state officials.
