At its session held on 27 December 2005, the Committee on Defence and Security of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia discussed the Report on the Activities of the Security and Information Agency for the period June – November 2005.

Presenting the highly confidential report, the Director of the Security and Information Agency, Rade Bulatovic, spoke about the security situation and the Agency’s current activities.

Mr Bulatovic denied media reports that the Agency had tapped telephone conversations of National Assembly deputies. He said that this was not so, and that the Agency had not tapped a single deputy. When asked by a deputy about what the Agency had done to prevent such rumours, Mr Bulatovic answered that it had filed criminal charges with the Belgrade District Public Prosecutor’s Office to establish the responsibility of the editors of Belgrade-based Blic daily newspaper.

Answering questions posed by deputies about the statement made by War Crimes Prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic, on the identification of persons helping Hague Tribunal indictees, Mr Bulatovic said he thought that the prosecutor was advising possible helpers of the fact that they were commiting serious crimes.

Mr Bulatovic also confirmed that a law on the availability and protection of secret data was being drafted, and said that such a piece of legislation was very important for international exchange of confidential data.

The Report on the Activities of the Security and Information Agency was adopted unanimously.

The sitting was chaired by the Committee’s chairman, Milorad Mircic.