Political analyst Valeriu Ostalep has published the response to his official request to the Security and Intelligence Service (SIS), from which it follows that the agency can conduct surveillance, open “special files,” and pursue individuals without oversight.
The scandal erupted after analyst Valeriu Ostalep attempted to find out from the agency on what grounds and under what procedural procedures SIS files are opened and managed, and to whom the service reports. The issue concerns the so-called “special files” – a tool the intelligence service uses to collect information as part of counterintelligence and foreign intelligence activities. Ostalep’s request was prompted by concerns that this mechanism could be used arbitrarily and without external oversight.
Ostalep submitted a request to the SIS regarding the legal basis and procedures for closing special files. On August 10, he received an official response signed by Secretary General Ion Clim, which stated that all relevant procedures… are classified as state secrets. The document states:
“The organization and methods of conducting counterintelligence and foreign intelligence activities; internal authorization procedures; rules for drawing up protocols for the management, storage, and destruction of obtained information and materials; measures to ensure their integrity and confidentiality, as well as intelligence/counterintelligence activities; the procedure for registering special files, their categories, opening, maintenance, closure, retention periods, and destruction procedures (…) constitute information classified as state secrets and are regulated by internal acts of the Service.”
The response also states that access to this information is restricted: it is allegedly limited on the grounds of the State Secrets Law and the Law on Access to Information of Public Interest. In other words, the agency, citing secrecy, declared that it reserves the right not to disclose even the general principles of working with “special files.”
Valeriu Ostalep made this response public, accompanying it with a sharp commentary. He concluded that the SIS operates parallel to the law, beyond the control of the prosecutor’s office and without initiating a criminal case:
“The SIS simply operates alongside the law, without a prosecutor and without a criminal case, and can surveil you indefinitely and uncontrollably. They have no restrictions and no oversight. Parliament has already been dealt with – no subcommittee has been established. Opening and closing are state secrets (they do whatever they want).”
The analyst also draws attention to the fact that parliamentary oversight has never been established, although the law directly provides for it:
“Parliament has officially acknowledged that it is violating the law it passed itself – Law 179/2023 – and no special subcommittee is overseeing the SIS’s activities. Because no one has simply set up such a subcommittee. And no one cares. So they got caught, so what?”
In his concluding remarks, Ostalep draws a historical parallel, comparing the current situation to the practices of the NKVD:
“Conclusion – the SIS has created a parallel criminal case process, with all the tools for surveilling a person’s life. At the same time, they are not bound by anything and NO ONE is controlling this. Just the NKVD in a stupid rendition in the 21st century.”
