At today’s session, the Constitutional Court didn’t make a decision about the constitutionality and the legality of Article 175 of the Law of Electronic Communications that will allow the Administration for Security and counter-intelligence (UBK) directly to wiretap through the telecommunication operators.
The Constitutional Court has confirmed for Meta agency that the decision about this issue is postponed because the court is working with an incomplete personnel i.e. with 8 judges and there is no majority for making a final decision.
This means that the disputable article 175 will be decided upon in one of the forthcoming sessions as soon as the “court’s personnel consolidates” i.e. when it begins working in full capacity of nine judges.
This is due to judge Ismail Darlishta to whom on 31st of July his nine-year mandate expired and the Parliament still hasn’t named any successor. On the 7th October, the mandates of judges Natasha Gaber – Damjanovska and Gzime Starova will also expire.
Otherwise, the initiative of abolishing Article 175 of the Law was accepted by the Constitutional Court on a session that took place on the 21st of June this year. It caused an enormous and heated debate when all nine judges of the Constitutional Court stated their opinions.