The civil organisation said it was appealing to Strasbourg after Hungary’s Constitutional Court rejected their submission last June asking for the annulment of a 2011 amendment of law-enforcement legislation. The amendment authorised the justice minister to permit secret surveillance of any individual by the TEK counterterrorism force without court approval.

According to the institute, the Hungarian legislation is in breach of Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights on the right to the respect for “private and family life, home and correspondence”. The institute said the Strasbourg court normally requires “effective external control” and legal provisions setting criteria for allowing surveillance; standards, it said, that the Hungarian regulation fails to guarantee.

The justice minister manifests neither an “external” nor an “effective” control, and although parliament’s national security committee and the fundamental rights ombudsman qualify as “external” control, it is not “effective,” it said.

The aim now is to trigger public discourse in Hungary on the issue of secret surveillance, the civil organisation added.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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