Press release

16 September 2017

Following the misunderstandings emerged in the media regarding the national security warrants, SRI would like to make the following clarifications:

In 2004, the procedures previously regulated by Law no. 51/1991 for obtaining the national security mandate were amended as a consequence of the decisions of the European Court and the Constitutional Court in the sense that the mandate had to be issued by a judge.

Since, at that time, the draft Law for Preventing and Countering Terrorism was subject to parliamentary procedure, the legislative assembly decided to include in the content of the respective normative act (535/2004) the legislative amendments regarding the procedure for requesting and issuing the national security mandate for all categories of threats to national security.

Consequently, between 2004 and 2014 (the year when Law 51/1991 was amended and the procedure for obtaining this document was reinserted) the basis for issuing the national security mandate, regardless of the field for which it was granted, was the Law for Preventing and Countering Terrorism.

Thus, based on the fact that all warrants issued during this period enclose the mention that they are based on Law no. 535/2004, the idea that they were obtained by claiming terrorist threats has been disseminated.