Today the Supreme Administrative Court announced that it is annulling art. 5 of the notorious Ordinance 40, which deals with data retention.
It is the final decision, and that’s the word of the Court. Now, I have criticized the Bulgarian legal system before, but in this case they took the right decision.
Article 5 was dealing with allowing passive access of police to the computers of the internet service providers, but the court argued that the text is too vague, and gives broader than necessary access with no real justification.
The case was filed by Access to Information program.
In the meantime, ISOC has started a project with BlueLink to introduce changes in the Law for Electronic Services, which would ensure more strict judicial control over the action of the police in cases of data retention.
The decision is a good one for the Bulgarian Internet, and AIP deserves a lot of credit for achieving it!
You can download the original court decision here(PDF in Bulgarian)
It may be good for BG Internet, but is legally very unsound.
I cannot understand the standing of a NGO (a foundation) to
challenge this Ordinance. Mr. Kashamov or mr. Veni Markovski or
some corporation certainly would have standing to challange, but
a NGO?
As a side note, four of the five judges of the panel hear normally
social security, welfare benefits and health benefits disputes.
Just noting.