BIA: Claims on Phone Surveillance Are Trivial Sensationalism, We Work by Law

Security and Information Agency (BIA) (Photo: PrintScreen YouTube)

The Security and Information Agency of Serbia (BIA) stated on Sept. 3 that the claims of students in blockade about mobile phones of 14 of their colleagues and associates having been surveyed by “spy software” were “nothing but trivial sensationalism.”

“The content of these claims clearly indicates the true intentions of individuals and organizations that make them – in the form of work for the interests of particular foreign services and pressure groups,” it was declared in the statement.

BIA claims that they work solely according to Serbian laws and strictly according to regulations, and that they “never comment on that type of content.” The students in blockade stated on Sept. 2 that the mobile phones of at least 14 of their colleagues, members of the “IT blockade” initiative, an activist, one member of parliament and one local councilperson were spied on with illegal software.

The co-president of the Green-Left Front, Radomir Lazovic, has also stated that he had been under surveillance at least since the start of this year, together with 13 students and activists, and that the Front would address international organizations because of this. The People’s Movement of Serbia has stated that one of their councilpersons was also surveyed by such software, while other members of parliament, councilpersons and the president of that opposition party, Miroslav Aleksic, have also been subjected to similar procedures.