(Podgorica, 16. november 2012.) – Hiding behind claims of protecting national security, the National Security Agency (ANB) and the Police Directorate refused to release information about how extensively covert surveillance methods are being used.
MANS legal representative Veselin Radulović submitted to the Podgorica Basic Court last week evidence confirming that MANS employees have been objects of covert surveillance.
The President of the Basic Court in Bijelo Polje, Radule Piper, produced a ruling by this court – at Radulović’s urging – from May of last year that authorizes the identification of IP addresses.
The Court thereby confirmed that MANS members were being surveilled with the aim to uncover who posted the now infamous video of the fugitive narco-boss Safet Kalić‘s wedding online.
Radulovic explained that with this authorization the police was able to gather information from MANS’ IP address and all of its internet communications as a result. This information was covertly gathered while MANS employees were not informed that they were the targets of such measures.
In August of last year, following a complaint filed by Vanja Calović, the [Ministry of Internal Affairs] MUP ruled that the police should submit to her the information that it had gathered from the online communications of MANS employees. Neither the police nor the Supreme State Prosecutors’ Office have acted on this ruling to date.
Private detective Vladan Pavicević told Monitor that surveillance measures should only be authorized in cases where “national security is threatened or for purposes of [combating]organized crime.” Surveillance measures targeting MANS are unjustifiable according to him.
Pavicevic explains that the ANB received broader powers as a result of amendments to the existing laws last year.
“The amendments allowed for the adoption of surveillance measures for up to two years, which means that the ANB has the right to secretly film with audio and video equipment apartments and offices, of course, with the approval of the courts. In the case that it does not establish the existence of criminal activities, the ANB should provide the target of the surveillance with the gathered materials,” explains Pavicevic.
MANS legal representative Radulović reminded the Supreme State Prosecutor Ranka Čarapić that there haven’t been any specific legal proceedings initiated against MANS and that she therefore must allow insight into the materials that were collected about the employees in this NGO.
“At least for two years you are overseeing measures that violate basic human rights, all with the obvious intention of protecting the interests of Safet Kalić and the guests at his wedding,” state Radulović [the guests included key Montenegrin security and intelligence officials].
In the aforementioned Law on the ANB, it is stipulated that citizens can request to know whether or not their personal information is being monitored and whether or not surveillance measures have been undertaken that target them. On the other hand, the Constitution clearly stipulates that everyone has the right to be informed about information that has been collected about their person.
The case of MANS is for now unique in that they managed to obtain evidence that they are being surveilled. Radulović told Monitor that legal praxis demonstrates that the police is using surveillance measures mostly without control, with the substantial support of the courts.
Hiding behind national security concerns, the ANB and the Police Directorate refuse to release information about how extensively they are using covert surveillance measures. The Courts are generally used to respect the legal procedures for the implementation of these measures. Analysts claim that the role of the ANB’s internal controls are limited, as well as that of Parliamentary oversight provided by the Committee for Security and Defense.
This is illustrated by that fact that the only information about the number of surveilled citizens at the beginning of this year was obtained by the NGO Institut Alternativa. According to this information, between 2005 and 2009, the ANB had under surveillance 324 Montenegrin citizens. Drawing on the Law on the Secrecy of Information, along with the claim that national security would be compromised, the police has not released new data in this regard.
Nebojsa Medojević, a member of the Parliamentary Committee for Security, has continuously warned that the ANB and the police are abusing surveillance measures without the adequate control of the parliament in order to spy on a large number of individuals. Recently, the daily Vijesti stated that the surveillance measures were approved by the Mafia and the top-levels of the state, as well as certain large capital owners. “From my experience, as a member of the Committee for Security, I don’t have any problems stating that our security services were an integral part of the logistics for organizing smuggling, narcotrafficking and money-laundering,” according to him.
Medojević, for years already, claims that the jaguar surveillance equipment that was being used by the military of the former state is being used in Montenegro and that private individuals are also using it against the law.
“The use of modern military digital equipment jaguar for surveillance by private persons and the abuse of this technology in dirty campaigns against the opposition, the independent media, fee intellectuals has taken on the character of serious violations of the Constitutional Order and basic citizens’ rights and freedoms,” state Medojević earlier this year.
The government responded to Medojević’s claims by stating that he should initiate legal proceedings before the courts, or dismissed the entire story as lies “rejecting it with indignation.”
The latest evidence that MANS was under surveillance is an additional argument supporting the claim that judges, prosecutors, NGO activists, journalists, businessmen, etc. are frequent targets of surveillance. On the other hand, in spite of the ‘ever present’ surveillance measures int eh country, Darko Sarić easily passed the security threat assessments of the ANB, while for years ANB operatives had warm relations with Safet Kalic.
The veil of secrecy is clearly following the similar actions of unreformed secret police forces in the region, including towards the highest state functionaries. During the last few days, a scandal involving the surveillance of the highest state functionaries in Serbia has rocked the country, including President Tomislav Nikolić and the Vice-President Aleksandar Vucić. Montenegro had its own “listing” scandal roughly a year ago. At that time, allegedly falsified records of telephone conversations by Prime Minister Igor Luksić and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Milan Roćen with narco-boss Darko Sarić were published. After this scandal, the Police Director Veselin Veljović and the director of the ANB Vladan Joković left their positions. Till this day the affair has not been clarified.
Weekly newspaper,
MONITOR
