European court: No effective safeguards in processing of data by Bulgaria’s intelligence services

There are no effective safeguards in respect of the processing of data by Bulgaria’s intelligence services, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said in a judgment announced on April 28.

The court held, by five votes to two, that there had been a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In 2021 Krassimir Kanev, chair of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, had asked Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security (SANS) whether it had gathered intelligence about him or the association.

The agency had refused to disclose that information, and proceedings brought by Kanev in Bulgari courts to challenge that refusal had been unsuccessful.

The court said that while it was necessary for states, for the purposes of national security, to have laws granting the authorities the power to collect and store information about people in databases which were not accessible to the public, the ECHR held that none of the potential safeguards against arbitrariness or abuse in that regard had been effective.

In particular, the courts reviewing the decision not to disclose the requested information had not seen the information in question, had not examined whether disclosure of that information could in fact harm the public interest and had fully deferred to the Agency’s assessment in that regard.

The ECHR said that furthermore, it did not appear that the Commission for the Protection of Personal Data had ever checked how SANS processed operational data, in particular, whether it duly followed the statutory rules and regulations; nor had SANS ever been called to report either to the Bulgarian Parliament or its government in that connection.