Miqati Shrugs off March 14 Criticism of Government Obstruction to Telecom Data

Prime Minister Najib Miqati shrugged off the criticism of the March 14 opposition coalition on the so-called telecom data, saying security apparatuses were satisfied with the data that were being handed over.

In remarks to An Nahar daily published Thursday, Miqati said: “There isn’t any negligence and the security bodies are satisfied with the level of information that they are getting.”

“The attacks on the government are giving a bad image of Lebanon,” Miqati said. “We hope that the critics would make an objective criticism … because our priority today is to preserve the state.”

His comments came after he headed a meeting of a three-member judicial committee and the leaders of security agencies at the Grand Serail to resolve the dispute on the telecom data, which March 14 says is necessary to uncover plots to target Lebanese politicians.

According to the newspaper, Miqati asked to sign on each request made to have access to the telecom data to ward off accusations that the government was obstructing the investigations of the security bodies.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told An Nahar that the Intelligence Branch of the Internal Security Forces, the General Security, and the Army Intelligence reached the conclusion during the meeting that security agencies would receive the data that they ask for in accordance with law 140 that preserves the confidentiality of calls.

“The requests of the apparatuses would be met within a certain geographic location to pursue the criminals,” he said.

A highly-informed source told al-Liwaa newspaper that the agreement reached during the Grand Serail meeting lies in giving the data on all Lebanese territories and limit the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), which is a unique identifying number stored in the phone's SIM, to specific cases to preserve the people’s civil liberties.

The different parties also stressed that the judicial committee is the adequate authority to allow or reject handing over the data to the security agencies, the source said.

The major controversy on the telecom data erupted in April when Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea escaped sniper fire at his home in Maarab.

Last week MP Butros Harb escaped an assassination attempt after detonators were found in the elevator of his office building.

The March 14 coalition accused the government of complicity if some of its members continued to reject handing over all data to security apparatuses.