SIS lieutenant colonel to head National Center for Personal Data Protection

The National Center for Personal Data Protection will be headed by Vitalie Panis, who now acts as division head, lieutenant colonel at the Security and Information Service (SIS). The parliamentary majority approved of his candidacy on Thursday, November 13. The Opposition criticized the decision, Info-Prim Neo reports. Vitalie Panis, 34, has worked at the National Security Ministry and the SIS since 1998. During 1995-1998, he had acted as criminal police inspector at the Police Commissariat of Chisinau’s Buiucani District. A number of Opposition MPs maintained that Vitalie Panis will not be independent from the SIS and the personal data of the people could be used by the Service in different cases. “I think that the Center should be headed by a person that does not work in the system because his military degree and post imply certain loyalty to the system,” said nonaffiliated MP Vlad Filat, who is the president of the Liberal Democratic Party. “The given institution should protect the people, including from the illegal interference of the SIS,” Filat added. Nonaffiliated MP Ion Neagu, vice president of the Actiunea Europeana Movement, said that “Vitalie Panis will act as an officer under cover as he works for the Ministry of Justice. This way, the SIS wants to penetrate all the state and commercial institutions”. Ion Neagu considers that the appointment of Panis is another step aimed at strengthening the police state in Moldova. Communist MP Vladimir Turcan, the chairman of the parliamentary legal commission for appointments and immunities, replied that Panis’ experience in the SIS is a strong argument showing that he is devoted to the state and the law, knows what a secret is and how to keep it. For his part, Vitalie Panis said that working in the criminal police, he strictly observed the law on police, which says that the law enforcement bodies must protect people’s rights. The recently created National Center for Personal Data Protection is designed to protect the human rights and freedoms when the personal data are processed, including the right to private life, personal and family secrets. Under the law on the protection of personal data, the Center is impartial and independent from the public authorities. The Center’s director must have at least five years of experience in the area of human rights protection.