A much-needed upgrade to controlling illegal mobile usage within the prisons has seen the justice ministry accused of breaking the law
The alleged collusion between a convict and a senior police officer to damage prisons’ director Anna Aristotelous, aside from the obvious scandal, has revealed deficiencies in controlling illegal cell phone usage within the prison system.
It also revealed the directorate’s year-long efforts to remedy the issue by getting the relevant state authorities to fulfil the contract upgrade governing the prison’s existing cell phone jammer software, to include 5G network jamming as well, set to expire on 20 July.
According to Politis, the prison directorate was sending urgent letters to the transport ministry’s electromechanical services warning of the deficiencies and the need for the pending upgrading since at least 2021, with a total of six letters without ever receiving a response.
Asked about the matter, Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos had declined to comment citing confidentiality reasons.
But at the same time, a series of leaked mails have shown that the justice ministry was pursuing surveillance upgrades for the prison software currently in place. This entails recording of a device’s unique code (IMEI), the sim card’s identity (IMSI), the date and time of a call and its geographic coordinates when attempting to make a call within the prison system’s coverage.
Speculation then arose that authorities were actually seeking a surveillance upgrade rather than an upgrade to jam the use of mobiles, reasoning that, instead of making it harder to control phone usage it is preferable to keep the jamming capabilities as they are but introduce surveillance as a way of keeping an eye on things.
According to Phileleftheros, in a February meeting, Justice Minister Stefi Drakou had given verbal instructions to the prisons department to go ahead and upgrade the software to do just that.
A leaked letter dated 28 February 2022, sent from the justice ministry to the prisons department reiterates the instructions in writing, reinforcing the idea that the ministry was bent on upgrading the software enabling its surveillance rather than jamming capabilities.
It instructed the prison directorate to take “immediately all appropriate actions in consultation with the department of electromechanical services for its implementation”.
In addition, the minister had also instructed that aside from the prison directorate, the police be given partial or entire access to the data collected for informational purposes.
In March, the prisons’ directorate in a letter sent to the minister expressed its reservations regarding the decision’s compatibility with the constitution and also pointed to the fact that surveillance activity requires a court warrant, that enabling such capabilities may threaten the data and privacy of individuals other than the convicts – especially those visiting, working or residing near the prisons, and also pointed out that the directorate may find itself criminally liable in the event of implementing such a decision.
“In essence, the prisons department directorate is being asked to take responsibility for the implementation of a measure that it considers illegal,” the letter said.
Importantly, under article 60 of the law governing civil servants’ duties, it is stated that “an employee…must comply with the administrative directives and circular orders concerning the public service and the instructions of their superiors.”
Adding that “in case a direction is clearly illegal then the employee is not expected to execute it but to report it to his superior. If the superior’s direction is then backed by the opinion of the attorney-general, then the employee must comply.”
On this point, lawyer Simos Angelides speaking to Sigma television focused on article 60 and stressed that it should be clarified as to whether the justice minister’s decision and direction to the prison’s directorate was positively backed by the opinion of the attorney-general.
And according to minister Drakou, her decision is indeed backed by the attorney-general. In a scathing announcement issued on Thursday, the minister clarified that “all my actions are aligned with the attorney-general’s opinion”.
“The reports purporting to show that I promote the surveillance of communication content within the prison instead of the disabling and tracking of cell phones are not true at all,” Drakou said stressing there was never an issue of backing a surveillance upgrade rather than a 5G jamming upgrade.
“Our actions are aimed at harmonising with the technological developments that are constantly being reshaped…in this context we decided to upgrade the system so that its jamming capabilities cover frequencies [5G] that did not exist during the implementation of the original contract,” the announcement reads.
“Then, in the presence of the Prisons Directorate, it was decided to activate the existing system’s capabilities further, in a way that when the illegal use of a mobile phone within the prisons is attempted, the identity of the phone and its location are recorded with a view to its immediate detection and seizure,” it added.
Crucially, Cosmos Business Systems, the contracting company that installed and operates the prison software raised a red flag in reference to the system’s capabilities in an announcement on Tuesday.
“The deactivation works within the central prison’s common areas such as at the parking, the imprisoned graves, the vehicle traffic corridors, the main gate, and the prison guard school opposite the British Embassy. It is not only concentrated in the wings where inmates are housed. Therefore, the devices of citizens, lawyers’ journalists and officials present in these places are affected,” it said.
“In the case the tracking/surveillance system is activated, then the content of a communication, the IMEI and IMSI of a phone, its electronic messages, sms, mms and photographs will also be collected,” it added in contradiction to the minister’s description of the system’s capability.
Furthermore, it is stated that the systems transmission can deviate and target mobile phones in areas outside the prisons, requiring the intervention of mobile phone companies and the electromechanical services to restore it.
Meanwhile Karousos told daily Phileleftheros the electromechanical department has done what it should have regarding cell phone jamming in the prison and that criticism levelled against it is unwarranted.
The minister further added that in one or two months the software will be upgraded to include 5G network cell phones, and that the contract is being fulfilled on time.
