A bill to amend the constitution on the monitoring of telephone communications is set to go before the full House on Thursday.
The main point of disagreement concerns which authority should approve surveillance requests by the Cyprus Intelligence Service for suspects involved in serious criminal offenses or matters of state security. The dispute has raised doubts about whether the legislation can secure enough votes to pass.
Under the proposed bill, the attorney general would be empowered to authorize phone monitoring under specific conditions. Any evidence obtained through such surveillance would require separate approval from a court before it could be presented in legal proceedings.