UK agency spied on Egyptian human rights organisation

A UK tribunal has confirmed that the British spy agency GCHQ did legally intercept emails from Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, but broke law in holding onto data.

MENA

1 min read

The New Arab & agencies

23 June, 2015

The UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) - file picture. [Getty]

The British eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, has violated the rights of a Egyptian and a South African human rights organisation, a tribunal has found.

Judges from the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) found that although GCHQ's interception of emails from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights was lawful, the agency broke the law by failing to delete data past a 14 day legal deadline.

The tribunal's findings came after complaints were filed by Liberty, Privacy International and other human rights groups about GCHQ's practices.

GCHQ has been criticised in the past for acting unlawfully, such as using data gathered by its US counterpart, the National Security Agency, to snoop on British citizens.

However, a ruling in December by the IPT generally backed GCHQ's surveillance practices.

The eavesdropping agency posted a statement on its website Monday saying it was "working to rectify the technical errors" identified in the new ruling.

GCHQ also said they welcomed the tribunal's conclusion that its interception of data was lawful and that the policy breaches weren't serious enough to warrant compensation to the agencies involved.