Suspended Attorney General says her phone is being tapped

Panama’s suspended Attorney General Ana Matilde Gomez, said Tuesday that she knows that, like some political leaders in the country, her phone is being tapped.

Several opposition leaders have made the same claim recently.

 She said that in the Attorney General’s Office there is no single device for the interception of telephone communications and that only the State Security Council has the ability and equipment

The Supreme Court decided to call Gomez to trial for  abuse of authority and abuse of functions, because in 2005  she ordered a wiretap in an  investigation of former prosecutor Arquimedez Sáez, for allegedly taking a bribe.

Following that, Gomez was suspended from office and the Court called for a trial.

Gomez, said on TYN that prosecutors were able to tap phones when investigating a felony as established by Law 23  which says that the Attorney’s Office may order,tapping  where there is evidence of serious crimes, the interception of communications, recordings, and others.

According to Gomez, what happened was that in 2004 it was decided that the prosecution was not the judicial authority to order wiretapping.

"The big difference," she said, is that such interceptions were made in the course of an investigation of a felony. What is being done now, she said, is abusing ability, so they can listen in based on assumptions.

“Any third party listening to a phone call, if not a judicial authority, commits a felony … I know that my phone is tapped," said Gomez.