EUROPEAN COURT TO REVIEW SWEDEN'S SNOOP LAW;

UNCLAS STOCKHOLM 000510

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

EUR FOR NB

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EINT PTER PINR PGOV RU SW
SUBJECT: EUROPEAN COURT TO REVIEW SWEDEN'S SNOOP LAW;
RUSSIA A TARGET OF LAW

REF: STOCKHOLM 450

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED--PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.


1. (U) Summary: On July 14, Sweden-based Justice Center (CFR)
announced it will refer Sweden's new surveillance law to the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Liberal Party
parliamentarians have heavily criticized the law's vagueness.
Nordic telecommunications businesses are considering moving
operations out of Sweden. As 80 percent of Russia's foreign
cable-based communications flow through Sweden, the law
legalizes Sweden's monitoring of the majority of Russia's
trans-border communications. End summary.


2. (U) CFR asserts that Sweden's new surveillance law
(reftel) violates Article 8 and 13 of the European Convention
on Human Rights because it vaguely describes its objectives
and the manner in which information may be collected. CFR
wants the Court to review the new law, as it did with similar
laws from Germany in 2006 and the UK in 2008.


3. (U) The Parliament is out of session until September 16,
but political back-lash to the law, mostly from Liberal Party
parliamentarians, has increased in the past few weeks. These
critics are opposed to the current law's vagueness, yet
support improving Swedish surveillance legislation. Prime
Minister Reinfeldt is the main target of criticism; his
defense is that the law is "misunderstood." Nonetheless, the
Alliance government has not run a public-awareness campaign
in support of the law.


4. (U) Nordic telecommunications businesses have loudly
protested the new law in the local media. TeliaSonera,
Momail and Hi3G (3) stated they are considering relocating
servers out of Sweden to protect customers from the law. In
an op-ed piece to a major local paper, CEOs from eight large
IT and telecom companies heavily criticized the law for:

-- deviating from the EU norm;
-- potentially unseating Sweden from its position as IT
leader in Europe; and
-- creating unnecessary costs for the telecom industry.


5. (SBU) The Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet recently
asserted that the motivation behind the new law is to
legalize the National Defense Radio Establishment's (FRA)
monitoring of Russian communications. Approximately 80
percent of Russia's foreign communications pass through
communications cables on Swedish soil. The Russian Embassy's
Press Secretary, Anatoli Gargatova, told poloff the Russian
government has not officially commented on the new law and
the Embassy does not plan to discuss it with the Swedes.
Gargatova said the Duma's Head of Foreign Affairs Committee,
Konstantin Kosachov, recently raised the topic at the Duma
and plans to take the issue to the European Council. (Note:
Kosachov was second secretary at the Russian Embassy in
Stockholm in the mid-1990s. End note.)
SILVERMAN