Minister of Internal Affairs responded to interpellation concerning surveillance
The alternate member of the Riigikogu Leino Mägi took the oath of office.
The Minister of Internal Affairs Jüri Pihl answered the interpellation No 26 concerning surveillance, submitted on 14 November 2007 by Members of the Riigikogu Karel Rüütli, Mai Treial, Tarmo Mänd, Ester Tuiksoo, Villu Reiljan and Jaanus Marrandi.
The interpellators wished to know how many officers of the Security Police and the Police Board have been granted the authority to decide on the initiation of surveillance proceedings and how many relevant decision have been made in the last three years.
Mr Pihl explained that 44 police officers have been granted the authority to initiate surveillance proceedings: heads of units of the Criminal Police, heads of departments and services responsible for the legality and justifiability of the activities of the units, or 15 in total in the Security Police. The Police Board and the Security Police have made 7.163 decisions on the initiation of surveillance proceedings during the last 3 years, including surveillance proceedings on the basis of clause 1(1)1) of the Surveillance Act, i.e. the need to collect evidence in criminal proceedings.
Mr Pihl said: „We consider that the mechanisms provided in the Act as well as in departmental directives for ensuring the verification of the legality of surveillance are sufficient for guaranteeing the rights of persons subject to proceedings and exclude violations by the police.” According to the Minister, surveillance proceedings were found to have been conducted justifiably and legitimately. “Since parliamentary supervision is exercised over the surveillance, and the relevant committee has also confirmed that the proceedings have been justified and based on the Act in force, we can say that the supervision exercised over surveillance is efficient and that the surveillance is carried out in accordance with the Acts in force,” Mr Pihl stressed.
The Riigikogu made amendments to the agenda for the working week. On the motion of the Rural Affairs Committee, the Bill on Amendments to the State Borders Act, and the Law of Ship Flag and Registers of Ships Act (160 SE), initiated by the Government of the Republic, will not enter its first reading during this working week.
During the open microphone, Marek Strandberg and Hannes Astok took the floor.
The verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian) is available at: http://www.parlament.ee/?op=steno
The Riigikogu Press Service