Phone tapping will be allowed only after the formal initiation of penal proceedings, as the persons who were tapped will have the right to know about it. These are some of the modifications proposed to be made to the legislation on interception, and discussed Monday between the Minister of Justice, Alexandru Tanase, and the representatives of various authorities as well as fixed and mobile telephony operators, Info-Prim Neo reports. Alexandru Tanase said the legislation on phone tapping in Moldova has been, for many years, overly permissive and beyond the limits of an efficient judicial control. “More than 98 percent of the requests for phone tapping filed by the investigators are authorized, which is absolutely abnormal. This means in fact that everything that the investigative body asks for is allowed”, said Tanase. One of the reasons for the Ministry of Justice to respond to this problem was a judgment by the European Court of Human Rights, which found that the legal mechanisms in Moldova do not offer enough safeguards in this domain, while the practice of phone tapping was assessed as being too intrusive. “Today the investigative bodies have access to “interface A”, which means unrestrained interception of any telephone conversation, without even notifying the operator”, the minister of justice said. Tanase added that all the legal amendments that will be drafted will be “in favor of every citizen”. Attending the meeting, representatives from the Ministry of Interiors and the Intelligence Service talked about a number of gaps in the legislation, while the senior deputy prosecutor general, Vasile Pascari, suggested that phone tapping should be started only after the initiation of penal proceedings. “We want the process of investigation to be transparent so that our clients do not lose confidence in our services”, said Chiril Gaburici, the general director of the mobile operator Moldcell. Sergiu Postica, strategy and business development manager at Orange, said the issue is not just a legal challenge, but also a technological one, because constant investments on the part of the government are required to maintain a proper interception system. Government officials and representatives of private entities will work together to draft the necessary amendments which will be forwarded to the Government and then to Parliament.