Commissioner orders BIA to provide surveillance data

BELGRADE - Rodoljub Sabic, commissioner for information of public importance and personal data protection, ordered the Security Information Agency (BIA) to submit the data regarding the number of persons placed under surveillance in the course of 2013 to non-governmental organization Youth Initiative for Human Rights within five days.

The Initiative appealed to Sabic after BIA rejected its request to be granted access to this information, the Initiative stated in a release.

BIA's rejection was based on the possibility of “the information becoming available to an unlimited number of persons, including those who pose a threat to the security of Serbia and possess analytical skills allowing them to draw conclusions from the said database that would indicate primary directions of BIA's engagement in the protection of national security”.

The Initiative points to the 2013 ruling of the European Court of Human Rights which states that BIA's refusal to provide information on the number of persons under surveillance constitutes a violation of the Initiative's right to receive information.

Acting upon this ruling, BIA provided the requested information to the Initiative.

Photo Tanjug, S. Radovanovic