A plenary of Senate committees has approved the dissolution of the Intelligence Secretariat (SI) and the creation of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI), with the bill moving forward for full debate in the Upper House on February 11.
Opposition senators abstained from the committee audiences, but government-aligned Victory Front (FpV) members were able to clear the proposal, sent to Congress last week by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Head of the Airport Security Police (PSA) Marcelo Saín and representatives of the Legal and Social Studies Center (CELS) earlier took part in the meeting of the committees of Constitutional Affairs and Justice and Criminal Affairs.
Yesterday opposition senators decided they would boycott the debate that was headed by Legal and Technical Secretary of the government Carlos Zanini and the SI chief Oscar Parrilli.
Defending the project that was submitted to Congress by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in one of the official moves following the death of AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, Zannini pointed out the project aims at granting the General Prosecutor’s Office with the power to order phone tapping actions, something opposition parties questioned saying the Supreme Court should be in charge of. “It would put evidence on its hands,” the secretary said meaning the maximum tribunal might eventually have to rule on the same case.
“Requesting the Supreme Court to take responsibility for the matter (phone tapping) is a mistake because it would put the production of evidence on its hands and that could bring problems in the case it had to participate in those same cases,” Zannini explained.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald