Colombia’s Congress approved a new law that is to prevent and punish the illegal use of wiretaps by intelligence officials.
The law was proposed by the Liberal Party after a major scandal regarding the illegal wiretapping of Supreme Court judges, journalists, human rights workers and opposition politicians, and has led to jail sentences for several employees of intelligence agency DAS and investigations into the involvement of former President Alvaro Uribe and some of his closest aides.
The new law prohibits the use of wiretaps without court order and increases penalties for those officials who illegally wiretap suspects.