The Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information issued a decision prohibiting the Ministry of Justice from providing personal data from the criminal records of the former Inspector General of the National Security Agency, Artan Kurti.
The agency made the decision based on the request for the protection of rights, which Kurti submitted because he believes that "there was a violation of the right to the protection of personal data when the Ministry of Justice submitted data from his criminal records to the government."
Kurti initiated an administrative dispute against the Government, and after he was dismissed from the position of General Inspector of ANB, stating that in response to the lawsuit, the Government also submitted an extract from his criminal record, which was sent to them by the Ministry of Justice in May of this year without legal authority .
The Council of the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data, after considering the case files, issued a decision that the request for the protection of the rights of Artan Kurti was founded.
"Personal data must be processed in a fair and legal manner and cannot be processed to a greater extent than is necessary to achieve the purpose of processing or in a manner that is inconsistent with their purpose in accordance with Article 2, paragraph 112 of the Law on Data Protection The principle of legality of personal data processing means that there must be a valid legal basis for the processing of personal data in accordance with Article 9 of this Act personal data are processed, which can be revoked at any time, while paragraph 1, item 2 of this law prescribes that the processing of personal data is carried out without the consent of the person, if it is necessary to fulfill the obligations prescribed by law for the operator of the collection of personal data, i.e. in the exercise of public powers that are within the scope of work, i.e. the competence of the operator of the collection of personal data or of a third party, i.e. the user of personal data," the decision reads.
The agency stated that in accordance with Article 14 of the Personal Data Protection Act, it is regulated that the processing of personal data related to criminal acts, imposed criminal and misdemeanor sentences or security measures can only be carried out by or under the supervision of a competent state authority and if personal data protection measures are provided in accordance with the law.
The Council of the Agency also stated that during the supervision procedure it was undisputedly established that the conditions prescribed by law for providing the personal data of Artan Kurti from the criminal record were not met.
"Given that on September 23.09.2019, 326, the legal consequences of the conviction K. no. 08/23.09.2009 pronounced by the High Court in Podgorica, which came into force on September XNUMX, XNUMX, ceased to exist, there is no justified interest based on the law", states the Council of the Agency.
They also stated that the processing of personal data related to criminal offenses can only be carried out by or under the supervision of a competent state authority and if personal data protection measures are provided in accordance with the law, which was not the case in this specific case.
The former Inspector General of the ANB sued the Government again in mid-August after he was formally reinstated by the Administrative Court's court decision, then promptly dismissed again.
On August 1, during two consecutive sessions, the government first formally complied with the court's decision and returned Kurti to the post of inspector general of the government in the ANB, only to be dismissed from that position on the same day.
The legal battle between Kurti and the Government has been going on since November 9 last year, when he was first removed from one of the most important positions in the secret service system at the suggestion of Prime Minister Milojko Spajić.
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