“ARMENTEL” HEAD DENIED REPORTS ON TAPPING TELEPHONE CONVERSATIONS OF ARMENIAN CITIZENS

“Armenian citizens should know that their telephone conversations are not tapped,” – acting director of “ArmenTel” company Georgios Vasilakis stated today. It should be noted that technical expert of WFI British audit company Ian Bibi said at an open meeting of the Armenian government yesterday that “ArmenTel” digital stations not only register the duration of telephone conversations of Armenian citizens, but also record them. I. Bibi also stated that those records were not being erased at once, but were kept for several months. After a long discussion of the issue the “ArmenTel” head had to recognize that the telephone conversation records were kept only for “courts and corresponding bodies to be able to do certain work.” He emphasized that only the data, allowed by the country legislation, was being recorded today. These are telephone calls and numbers, which are necessary for the billing system, as well as for considering telephone subscribers’ complaints. In his words, it is conventional all over the world and is being practiced within the legal framework. The government and the prosecutor’s office of the republic are aware of it.