Intelligence Act, the Constitutional Council censored three articles – Le Point

The Constitutional Council has validated much of the intelligence law but censored three articles, one of which was to allow intelligence services in cases of “operational emergency”, to derogate from the political authority, said Thursday the Council. François Hollande has “taken note” Thursday night in a statement that partial censorship, which “in no way alters the balance of the law and does not deprive intelligence services of their means to act to protect our interests and security of the French. ” Manuel Valls on Twitter praised a “breakthrough”.

# LoiRenseignement: France now has a secure framework against terrorism and respect of freedoms. This is a breakthrough! MV

– Manuel Valls (manuelvalls) July 23, 2015

The Constitutional Council, on this controversial bill by the Head of State, President of the Senate, and more than 60 deputies, censored article on “operational emergency”, which allowed the intelligence service to depart from the opinion of the Prime Minister and the Committee control. It held that “(wore) a manifestly disproportionate interference with the right to respect for privacy and the secrecy of correspondence.” The Sages also censored an article regarding the “international supervision” and referred to decrees too important parts of the device.

“By defining only in the law nor the operating conditions of conservation and destruction of information collected pursuant to this article, nor those controlled by the National Control Commission for information technology of the legality of authorizations issued under that Article and their conditions of implementation, the law n has not determined the rules concerning the fundamental guarantees granted to citizens for the exercise of civil liberties, “the Constitutional Council. The third article is censored minor, according to the Council and key finance laws. He also was “consistent with the Constitution” the other provisions of this text opposed by many associations and Thursday criticized by the Committee of Human Rights of the UN.

Wide range

Have been validated intelligence techniques, which however must be a “strict proportionality test” and “administrative interceptions of correspondence” on the Internet. The “sound techniques certain places and vehicles,” as well as “capture images and computer data” are also found to be consistent, as the provisions on geolocation and data collection through “devices” and . the “shelf life” of collected information

The president of the Law Commission, the PS deputy Jean-Jacques Urvoas Finistère, welcomed in a statement: “Almost all of law on intelligence is found to comply with the Constitution, none of the media-stirred complaints has been upheld. Contrary to what has been hammered, this text does nothing to organize a mass surveillance. On the contrary, a law guarantees the protection of freedom through strengthening the rule of law. ” Former Prime Minister “Republicans” Jean-Pierre Raffarin her statement on Twitter that “the Constitutional Council for its opinion raises concerns about the law on intelligence.”

The Parliament adopted definitively end of June, with a final vote of the Assembly, the controversial bill, defended in the name of countering terrorism by the government but legalizing practices that critics consider questionable. The text was voted by show of hands by a broad left-right majority, but with dissenting voices in almost every political group. Prevention of attacks to economic espionage, the text defines a range of intelligence missions, and the system of authorization and control of many espionage techniques (tapping, camera or software installation -espion, access to connection data, etc.).