By Farah Waleed.
Tripoli, 24 April 2013:
The telephone calls of members of the government are being monitored, claimed a senior member of . . .[restrict]the General National Congress today.
Mohamed Ammari, the chairman of the GNC’s transport and communications committee claimed to the Libya Herald that the eavesdropping also extended to senior government officials, members of Congress and a number of journalists.
Ammari said that his committee had been in touch with Interior Minister, Ashour Suleiman Shuwail, who had told them that his ministry was not involved in any monitoring of communications. The committee chairman reported that Shuwail had said that Libya’s intelligence service could only monitor calls and communications of named individuals after it had been granted a court order.
Nevertheless Ammari said that his committee continued to receive complaints, some apparently from members of the government and senior officials, that they suspected their calls were being monitored. He added that it was the duty of the state to guarantee the security and confidentiality of all communications.
Yet he added that there was currently no legislation that could be used to stop the interception of communications. He speculated to the Libya Herald that the problem may have arisen in part from the battlefield communication monitoring equipment given by NATO forces to fighters during the revolution. The Congressman did not explain what proof had been discovered that showed calls were being monitored.
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