The party led by former Prime Minister Ion Chicu criticizes the legislative proposals promoted by the ruling party PAS, by which the duties of the Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) are extended. The Party of Development and Consolidation of Moldova (PDCM) considers that if these proposals are adopted, Moldova risks turning into a police state.
By the proposed legislative initiatives, the Security and Intelligence Service obtains the prerogative to follow people, to intervene in their private life without needing the consent of prosecutors and judges. If the bills are adopted in the current formula, the SIS head will be the one who will decide if the persons can be followed outside a criminal investigation or not. The jurists of the Party of Development and Consolidation of Moldova believe such initiatives defy the Constitution and the legal norms, IPN reports.
“Attempts to amend the law on the SIS have always been made, but the previous governments realized that providing the SIS with unlimited instruments without offering control mechanisms will have a boomerang effect sooner or later as nothing is eternal and the government members swiftly turn into ordinary citizens. The right to privacy is not something invented in the Republic of Moldova. It is a fundamental right enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. By these laws, we see the tendency to eliminate a series of legal procedures that the law enforcement agencies must obey in order to simplify their work without being punished,” said PDCM jurist Victor Macovei.
Ex-Premier Ion Chicu said the government’s intention to offer the SIS unlimited prerogatives is extremely dangerous, noting that this way the legal norms are being defied. “We are witnessing the PAS’s attempt to establish in the Republic of Moldova dictatorship, a police state where such notions as private life and fundamental human rights do not cost anything. The return to the experience of the NKVD, when any citizen could be pursued, followed, shot following an ordinary signature put by a state functionary designated by a party, means that we do not build democracy and the rule of law, but establish dictatorship. These laws, if they are adopted by this irresponsible government, cannot be kept. If a responsible government comes, repealing these laws will be the first thing it will do,” said the chairman of the PDCM Ion Chicu.
Currently, such investigative measures as following, phone tapping and bugging can be taken only within a criminal investigation. If the law is amended, the SIS will be able to take all the investigative measures without a warrant from the judge, if there is a reasonable suspicion that a person can pose a threat to state security.
