Lawyer Discusses New Bill on Police Wiretapping Rights

Lawyer Hovhannes Kocharyan posted on his Facebook page, stating: "The issue of granting police the right to wiretap is actively being discussed online, following the recent bill accepted in the first reading by the National Assembly through a parliamentary initiative. Judging by the content of some emotionally charged posts, the essence of the issue is not being correctly clarified to our citizens by the media.

The bill does not grant police the right to wiretap; rather, it enables the implementation of wiretaps not through the National Security Service's communication channels but directly through the police. The police have conducted and continue to conduct wiretaps; however, currently, this measure is provided by the National Security Service, meaning it is done through a mediated process. If the bill is accepted, bureaucracy will be reduced, thus positively impacting the police's work in solving crimes, especially residential burglaries, violent crimes, and including organized criminal activities.

In any modern state, operational services do not have the right to monitor the secret operations of one another, as it constitutes a gross violation of the principle of secrecy in intelligence activities. Monitoring should be conducted by the prosecutor's office, the courts, and political authorities. This is the logic that the accepted bill develops. It's another issue that the possibility for arbitrary wiretapping should be excluded, but this is already a matter for the government and parliament rather than individual deputies.

Under the current legislation, the mechanisms guaranteeing the legality of wiretapping are, to put it mildly, incomplete. The law on operational-investigative activities is already an "archaic" legal act that does not reflect international standards and best practices regarding specialized operations. As a result, many of us, without justified reasons, communicate with our family members through WhatsApp, Viber, and other internet applications. This is an unacceptable reality; I won't delve into the moral-psychological and legal nuances.

Rejecting the bill will not solve this critical issue, and operational work cannot be allowed to cease. Even under the control of a single law enforcement agency, the continuation of the wiretapping practice, meaning leaving the situation unaddressed, will not resolve the issue of excluding arbitrary listening, since that one body operates within the domain of existing incomplete legal regulations. Therefore, I propose to cease the campaign against the acceptance of the bill, as it distracts the public's attention from the main issue and to activate all democratic mechanisms for the rapid adoption of new, quality legislative acts that guarantee the exclusion of arbitrary wiretapping."