BIS (Bezpečnostní informační služba)

After the StB

According to BIS, after State Security (StB) was dissolved on 15 February 1990, the Federal Ministry of the Interior housed the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Democracy, followed by the Federal Information Service and then the Federal Security Information Service (Act No. 244/1991). From 1 January 1993 the Security Information Service of the Czech Republic operated (Act No. 527/1992), and the present BIS was established on 30 July 1994 under Act No. 154/1994; its first director was Stanislav Devátý.¹

Tasks

The Intelligence Services Act (153/1994) names three services: BIS, the Office for Foreign Relations and Information (ÚZSI) and military intelligence (§ 3). BIS gathers information on threats to the democratic foundations, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state, on the activities of foreign intelligence services, on threats to state secrets, to security and to important economic interests, and on organised crime and terrorism (§ 5).²

The Government is responsible for the services’ activities; the President and the Government receive annual reports and urgent findings and assign tasks within the services’ remit, the President doing so with the Government’s knowledge (§ 7–8).²

BIS may use intelligence technical means, including opening mail and wiretapping, only with the prior written consent of the presiding judge of a panel of the high court in whose district BIS has its seat, and only where other methods would be ineffective (§ 8–9 of Act 154/1994).³

Oversight

The services are overseen by the Government, by the Chamber of Deputies through special oversight bodies, and by a five-member Independent Oversight Body, which examines legality and respect for fundamental rights (§ 12 of Act 153/1994). The Chamber of Deputies’ body for BIS has at least seven deputies and may enter BIS premises; it reports breaches of the law to the director and to the Supreme Public Prosecutor (§ 18–20 of Act 154/1994).^2,3