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Britain Condemned for Eavesdropping |
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Thursday, 03 July 2008 |
Britain has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for violating privacy laws following complaints by three groups.
Europe's top rights court in Strasbourg, France, ruled against the British government on Tuesday saying it intercepted telephone calls between British and Irish rights groups and their clients.
The government has violated the right to privacy, the court added.
Liberty, British Irish Rights Watch, and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties allege that British Defense Ministry unit had set up an eavesdropping facility in northwestern England between 1990 and 1997 to intercept their telephone, fax, e-mail and other data communications.
Capenhurst Electronic Test Facility, located in Capenhurst, Cheshire, which was designed to intercept 10,000 simultaneous telephone channels, must have picked up the communication, Reuters quoted them as saying.
The court unanimously ruled that the British Defense Ministry had violated Article 8 - the right to respect for private and family life and correspondence.
The court was referring to the article in the European Charter of Human Rights on the right to privacy.
"The court recalled that it had previously found that the mere existence of legislation which allowed communications to be monitored secretly had entailed a surveillance threat for all those to whom the legislation might be applied," the court said in a statement.
Britain has three months to appeal.
Source: Press TV
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