Constitutional Court Orders SIS to Destroy Wiretap in Gorilla Scandal

Kosice, May 20 (TASR) - The Constitutional Court has ordered the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) to destroy the results of wiretapping in the Gorilla scandal. By failing to do so in the past, the Constitutional Court said the SIS had violated the fundamental rights of Zoltan Varga, whose apartment in Bratislava was wiretapped by the intelligence service in 2005 and 2006. The decision was adopted on May 15, following the reopening of proceedings in the case last year on the basis of Varga's complaint. According to the Constitutional Court, the secret service violated the complainant's constitutional right to protection against unwarranted interference in his private and family life. His rights under the articles of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms were also violated. The SIS warrants to wiretap the apartment in 2005 and 2006 were approved by Bratislava Regional Court. This decision was later overturned as illegal by the Constitutional Court, which found that Varga's right to privacy and judicial protection had been violated. In 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) also found a violation of the complainant's right to privacy in connection with the wiretapping. [The Gorilla scandal concerned alleged shady collusion between senior politicians and big business. - ed. note] am/mcs