Albania Forms Commission on Mystery Spy Device

Albania's parliament on Thursday approved the request of 35 opposition MPs to create a commission of inquiry into the mysterious electronic device "IMSI Catcher", which some claim has been used to illegally intercept communications.

The opposition accuses the Interior Minister, Saimir Tahiri, and police officials of using the device - given to them by Italian police as part of a training exercise - to intercept the communications of heads of institutions, leaders of parties, businessmen and journalists.

The temporary commission will be comprised of 11 members - five MPs from the opposition and six from the ruling majority.

In their request, the opposition MPs emphasized that the aim of the commission was to prevent such cases in future and identify those responsible for the misdeed.

"We want to obtain knowledge of the full legal documentation used for this device ... to monitor the concrete behaviour and actions of the authorities included in this case, in order to shed light on this scandal," the request of the MPs reads.

The prosecution already opened investigations into the case when the affair broke in May, while more information is still being gathered.

An official source from the General Prosecution told BIRN that their investigation is continuing.

"The prosecutors are waiting for the Italian authorities to reply to some requests for documentation that were made to them," the source told BIRN.

When news of the use of "IMSI Catcher" broke in May, both the opposition and President Bujar Nishani accused the authorities of breaching the constitution.

The head of Albania's Information Service, SHISH, Visho Ajazi, on May 19 told the parliamentary commission on security that the mysterious device that had...