Phone tapping on the increase in Switzerland
The number of phone calls tapped in Switzerland rose 18 per cent from 1999 to 2000.
The Swiss authorities ordered 2,430 telephone taps in 2000 compared with 2,046 the previous year. More than a third of them were ordered in connection with a suspected breach in drugs law.
Cantonal authorities ordered 85 per cent of the phone taps, with the remaining 15 per cent coming from requests from the federal government.
Canton Zurich ordered the lion’s share of telephone eavesdropping, accounting for just under a quarter of all phone taps, followed by cantons Bern and Geneva with 10 per cent and cantons Vaud and Ticino with eight and six per cent respectively.
Although suspected drugs crime was the reason behind 33 per cent of the phone taps, property damage was the second most significant reason with 20 per cent and attempted murder with 10 per cent of the tapped calls.
As a sign of the times, more than two-thirds of the phone taps were carried out on mobile phones.
The figures were revealed in response to a question posed by parliamentarian Valérie Garbani in the Swiss parliament this week.
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