GOVT PREPARING REGULATION ON WIRETAPPING

Padang, Nov 27 (ANTARA) - Communications and Information Minister Tiffatul Sembiring said the government was preparing a regulation on wiretapping for law enforcement purposes.

"As the Information Technology Law Number 11 of 2008 has been issued, a government regulation needs to be made so that wiretapping cannot be resorted to at will. We already have a concept and we hope to finish the draft of the regulation in six months," he said here on Friday.

The issue came to the limelight recently following the playing of a recording of wiretapped phone conversations between a businessman and several ranking law enforcement officials at a session of the Constitutional Court.

He said two agencies allowed to conduct wiretapping now were the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the police.

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) was also allowed to conduct wiretapping but so far it did not have the needed device while the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) had the device but was not allowed to do it.

"This is what has to be put in order through the regulation. This however has nothing to do with the case of KPK officials Bibit Samat Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah. The idea to regulate the matter was already raised in 2008," he said.

Bibit Samat Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah were named suspects by the police for having allegedly abused their authority and engaged in extortion in a corruption case they were handling. But the police's action triggered public outrage because many believed the police's charges were fabrications.

Citing examples in other countries, the minister said that in countries like Australia, South Korea and Japan wiretapping is put under the authority of the ministry of communications and information. He said there was a kind of ministry of information and communications technology to deal with it.

So, wiretapping should be done by KPK, BIN, the police or the attorney general's office based on a court decision.

He said it was important to regulate the matter because there were indications now that government agencies were wiretapping each other.

"They are wiretapping people's conversations. If two people are conducting conversations and they are wiretapped it is a human rights violation," he said.

On the possible establishment of an agency to deal with the matter, the minister said that it was not impossible that a special department would be established where unauthorized people could not enter.

He said it did not mean that a permit had to be obtained from the ministry of communications and information but the authority for issuing it would be determined by the court. He said what was clear was that it must not hinder the anti-corruption drive.

"Wiretapping will be restricted and cannot be used to collect evidence but may be used to collect information to complete initial evidence," he said adding that in other countries it was used to collect supporting evidence.