Slovakia is joining the list of countries that are strengthening security controls following the terrorist attack in Paris. Its counterintelligence service plans changes in the aim and also scope of activities.
The state should be able to monitor in a simpler manner, the privacy, telephone records and bank accounts of foreigners or other potentially risky individuals.
“If the security risk in Europe increases I think that it will be the simplest to react to these risks,” said Prime Minister Robert Fico on the public TV channel’s RTVS discussion Sobotné Dialogy. As far as the fight against terrorism goes, all countries should have the right to adopt laws that would give a free hand to the police to collect information concerning the private lives of people who pose a potential risk, Fico added.
"There are certain categories of people – foreigners or sometimes even our own people – whose behaviour seems irrational or strange,” Fico said, as quoted by the TASR newswire. “They act in a way that raises concerns as to whether they might be able to commit some crime in the future,” said Fico. The prime minister went on to say that the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) is currently placing great emphasis on effective international cooperation, particularly in the field of intelligence exchanges.
Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák plans to submit the respective changes so that they could be on parliament’s agenda already in March, the Hospodárske Noviny daily wrote. For example, also the approving of wiretapping of foreigners who live in Slovakia is going to change. At the Special Court, a panel will be established whose members will be trained to see that all rules are observed, but also that it is possible to monitor people who cannot be followed now, Kaliňák said according to the daily.
Fico further stated that he fully identifies with Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák’s opinion that the project of multiculturalism has failed. The premier emphasised in this respect that all decent people from outside Slovakia are welcome in the country but they should respect the environment, values and regulations that prevail in Slovakia to a certain extent, according to TASR.
(Source: RTVS, Hospodárske noviny, TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
