BY BALFORD HENRY Senior staff reporter balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com Thursday, July 17, 2014
THE Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) seems close to getting access to data from telephone calls made by members of the security forces accused of breaching the rights of civilians from local telecommunications providers.
A joint select committee (JSC) reviewing the INDECOM Act met at Gordon House and spoke favourably of recommending amendments to the Telecommunications Act and the Interception of Communications Act to make it possible.
The proposal, which was submitted to the JSC by INDECOM, has already received the support of Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) and the Norman Manley Law School at Mona, although there has been no response from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) or the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), or even the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) during the review.
Yesterday, the proposal won additional support from both Minister of Justice Senator Mark Golding, who chairs the committee, and Minister of National Security Peter Bunting, who is also a member.
The only dissenting voices were Opposition spokesman on national security, Derrick Smith, who felt that the committee should be very careful in dealing with such sensitive issues, and government senator, Lambert Brown, who felt that the request should have been routed through the Cabinet.
Asked by Senator Golding to explain what INDECOM was seeking from amending the laws, INDECOM Commissioner Terrence Williams, said that it was necessary to “permit INDECOM to get communications data relevant to an investigation in the same way the police are able to”.
He said that the amendment would allow INDECOM to receive telephone data, “so that in an appropriate case we can know who were the persons making calls to this telephone, and who were receiving, and so on…” more
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