IT specialists demonstrated at HRMI 12 July how conversations can be modified or transposed with the aid of a simple laptop and publicly available programs.
Senior Alna IT specialist Jaroslavas Perepelica said such "modification is no novelty – it was known six or seven years ago. Nowadays there exists much more effective means to alter the voice and contents of a conversation, especially when the modern sound recording equipment is used.”
The demonstration followed public warnings from HRMI in which Herikas Mickevičius, executive director, expressed his concern that law enforcement officials overuse wire-tapping and other sorts of electronic surveillance while investigating corruption and other crimes. Investigations continue with the knowledge that the content of the surveillence may have been altered or modified without the consent of the subjects under surveillance. Detecting such falsifications is expensive, complicated, and not entirely accurate.
Given a lack of adequate control, HRMI argues that the excessive use of electronic surveillance can seriously harm situation of human rights and democracy itself. Therefore, the pretrial investigation officials should be oriented to gathering more reliable and trustworthy evidence.
“Human rights are seriously endangered when law enforcement institutions and courts are attempted to be used as tools in political fight and suspicions of criminal deeds are discussed in Seimas neglecting constitutional standards and human rights,” said H. Mickevičius. “The fight against corruption and misuse of political power is undoubtedly important, but if it is conducted through violation of Constitution and human rights, the consequences might be disastrous.”
In the course of event HRMI’s public statement regarding human rights violations by special services during the corruption scandal was released. HRMI declared its intention to monitor politically engaged criminal investigations.
© 2012 Human Rights Monitoring Institute