Internal Security Agency disclosed certain statistics on its investigative methods

The Internal Security Agency (Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego) provided the HFHR only with selected statistical data on Agency’s investigative methods in the period 2002-2009. Consequently, the ISA failed to fully comply with the judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court which ordered the Agency to disclose to the HFHR various statistics on investigative methods.

According to the disclosed information, between 2002 and 2007 the number of Agency’s court applications for admission of investigative methods was systematically increasing, reaching its peak in the last year of this period when 2031 applications were filed. In 2008 the number of applications dropped to 938, only to raise again in 2009 to 1080.

Throughout the whole period, courts admitted almost all ISA’s applications (in 2005, the court refused two motions, in 2006 – 32, in 2007 – 16, followed by a single refusal in 2008 and 2009, respectively). Between 2002 and 2009 only on two occasions the head of the ISA suspended the use of investigative methods and ordered to destroy materials so obtained.

At the same time, the head of the ISA refused the HFHR’s request to disclose the exact number of applications for extending the duration of applying investigative methods for a period not longer than three months filed between July 2002 and March 2009. ISA head also failed to provide information on the exact number of applications for extending the duration of applying investigative methods for a pre-defined period filed with and admitted by the Circuit Court in Warsaw in 2002-2009.

In the reasons for his refusal, the head of the ISA argued that statistics on the investigation methods used by the Agency are recorded in a memo discussing the investigative methods employed by the ISA in the period 28 November 2002–31 March 2009 (ref. Z-0-13463/2012), protected as classified information within the meaning of the Classified Information Protection Act and is eligible for disclosure solely under the procedure set out in this Act.

According to the ISA, any public disclosure of the number of applications for extending the duration of applying investigative methods may be used by foreign intelligence services and terrorist organisations as a vital source of intelligence concerning potential risks to their operations in Poland.