Kovačević denies Konaković: There was no illegal wiretapping

(Patria) - Responding to journalists' questions at a BH Telecom press conference, director Amel Kovačević spoke about the alleged wiretapping affair in which BH Telecom was also mentioned. The story about wiretapping was brought to public attention in a way that the former director of the Intelligence-Security Agency, Osman Mehmedagić, misused OSA and illegally wiretapped SDA opponents.

The wiretapping affair through BH Telecom, according to the current knowledge of the company's management, which took over after the appointment of Nermin Nikšić's government, did not happen. More precisely, there is nothing controversial, confirmed an internal investigation at BH Telecom, writes Faktor.

- Regarding the wiretapping affair, as a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, before I joined BH Telecom, I learned certain information about this court investigation from the media. We recently had a case related to the president of the Court of BiH, Debevec, and Osmanagić. As soon as the new management of Telecom started working, we did three things. We immediately made ourselves available to the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina and expressed our readiness to cooperate.

The second thing is that we formed two commissions at Telecom to investigate everything that happened in the past related to wiretapping. We checked whether any of our colleagues from the company illegally wiretapped anyone without a warrant from a relevant state institution. The commission confirmed that there was no illegal wiretapping of anyone in this case. The second commission investigated BH Telecom's vulnerabilities regarding illegal wiretapping. This work requires additional time to uncover any abuses, if any. The new management of Telecom has zero tolerance when it comes to illegal wiretapping of anyone, and we will bring this to light – emphasized Kovačević.

The director of BH Telecom added that the process carried out during legal wiretapping is something that BH Telecom must participate in, it is an integral part of the job. He points out that they have clearly defined procedures for how wiretapping is carried out. An order comes to Telecom from a relevant state institution, we do our part, and we don't know who was wiretapped or what they said, because that is not our job, explains Kovačević.

Information about illegal wiretapping orchestrated by OSA was released to the public by Elmedin Konaković, president of Narod i Pravda, a party whose cadre is also the current director of Telecom, Kovačević.

Konaković claimed to have information that OSA, during Osman Mehmedagić Osmica's mandate, wiretapped dozens of people without the necessary court orders and that so-called dual SIM cards were used. It was then claimed that the illegal wiretapping affair would be exposed once the management of BH Telecom was finally changed. Besides Konaković, the US Embassy in Sarajevo also claimed that illegal wiretapping was occurring through BH Telecom.

The management of Telecom has changed, but according to what Kovačević said today, there is no evidence of illegal wiretapping at Telecom.