 |
A man talks
on his mobile phone as he enjoys the sunset from a roof bar in
Tbilisi, March
29, 2005 (AFP/File, Mladen Antonov)
|
Stockholm —
The Georgian government may be using technology from Swedish telecom giant
Ericsson to illegally monitor its own citizens, the company said Wednesday.
The
technology, originally designed to track criminals, is standard and Ericsson
sold it along with networking equipment to Georgian telecom provider Geocell in
2005, the Swedish company told AFP.
"The
technology is aimed at lawful monitoring to fight crime, but the (Georgian)
authorities allegedly use it for purposes it's not intended for," said
Ericsson spokesman Fredrik Hallstan.
He was
speaking after Swedish public radio reported that the Georgian government may
be using Ericsson technology to eavesdrop on its own population.
The story,
first reported Wednesday, has an additional Nordic dimension as Geocell is
majority-owned by Swedish-Finnish telecom operator TeliaSonera.
Authorities
in Georgia have the technical capacity to monitor 21,000 mobile phones, of
which one-third are connected to Geocell, according to the radio, which did not
give a source for these figures.
The claim
that Ericsson's technology is being used for unauthorised eavesdropping comes
in the wake of allegations that the Georgian government is deeply involved in
monitoring its own citizens.
Surveillance
without court authorisation is a "systematic practice" in Georgia,
according to a report published last month by Thomas Hammarberg, the EU special
adviser on constitutional and legal reform and human rights in Georgia.
"The
possibility of some access to inter-personal communications could be essential
in the fight against organised crime and terrorism," Hammarberg wrote in
the report.
"However,
the risk for misuse means that there is a need of legal regulations and
democratic and judicial control over all activities in this domain."
Salomon
Beckele, spokesman for TeliaSonera, told AFP that operators in Georgia are
required to give the government access to their networks.
"It
monitors the networks, and we don't have any idea what they are listening to
and what information they gather -- neither we or any other operators would
know," he said.
Pasi
Koistinen, CEO at Geocell, told Swedish radio that the surveillance was legal
under Georgian law.
"I
find it unacceptable and would like to see the law changed," he told the
radio from Georgia. "But as long as the surveillance is done according to
the laws, we must follow the laws in this country."
But
Elisabeth Loefgren, a spokeswoman at Amnesty International Sweden, told AFP
that companies have a responsibility not to violate human rights, and the
argument that their actions are legal is a poor excuse.
"If
the tapping is against the law as we see it -- if it is illegal surveillance --
it is clear that Ericsson and Geocell, TeliaSonera's subsidiary, have to take
responsibility," she said.
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