Legislation

Legal framework

SafeLine's main role is to mediate between citizens and the Hellenic Police, by receiving complaints from the former and forwarding them to the latter. The rights and obligations of citizens, both as individuals and as a whole, as provided by the legislation and Constitution of Greece, guarantee the legality of SafeLine's role.

As foreseen by Article 36 of the Hellenic Penal Code, "in cases where no indictment or request is necessary, prosecution follows ex officio (automatically - without an order by the Public Prosecutor), following any reference, charge or other notice that a criminal act has been committed", and in article 42, "besides the person that has been harmed, any other person has also the right to denounce these criminal acts to the authorities, and these are prosecuted ex officio, irrespectively of how the authorities were notified about them".

As well as denouncing the crimes and asking the Public Prosecutor to bring charges, each citizen has also the inalienable right to simply announce (notify), the Public Prosecutor of certain real events and ask the latter to evaluate them.

Therefore, citizens who are Internet users and know or believe that material posted on a particular website is illegal, have the right and the moral obligation to denounce such an event.

Nevertheless, for some age-groups of Internet users it is not easy to turn to the suitable authorities. Moreover, the time needed as well as the act itself of putting one's own name under an accusation would stall the timely and effective repression of Cyberspace crime.

Therefore, the need for a hotline initiative, like SafeLine, becomes apparent. The legal framework on which SafeLine rests arises from the Constitutional (articles 10 and 12, among others) right of Greek citizens to address the authorities in writing, either individually or in groups, by creating unions and non-profit organisations in order to protect their rights, both as individuals and as members of the society. Such action by citizens becomes more imperative and necessary in the era of Internet, which due to its anonymity, speed and international character facilitates criminal behaviour.

The co-operation between SafeLine and the Greek authorities is based on the realisation that the State is obliged to assist with and respond to citizens' requests regarding crime. In turn, all citizens have the right and obligation to facilitate the State in acknowledging and protecting the fundamental and unalienable human rights.

The legal framework within which SafeLine will be established and operate comprises the provisions of the Constitution, the Penal Code and Penal Procedures (as analysed above).

In any case, SafeLine's core action will be governed by existing legislation on the protection of personal data, and in particular Acts 2472/1997 and 2774/1999 about the period of time one is allowed to keep personal data and about ways and conditions for processing and making these public.

SafeLine's operation will also be governed by the provisions of Act 2225/1994 on communication confidentiality. These provisions will be applied for all communications between SafeLine and Internet users.

Scope

As the number of crimes that may be committed on the Internet is comparable to that for the "real world", SafeLine will accept all reports for illegal content.

There will, however, be a distinction between crimes that are prosecuted ex officio and those that are prosecuted under specific charges, as certain crimes, such as verbal abuse (art. 361 P.C.), must be denounced

by the immediate victim of the criminal act (art. 118 P.C.), i.e. the bearer of the legal benefit, who is protected by the above penal provision and is affected by the criminal act, or
by the wronged party, who has been directly harmed by the crime in any way, but who is not, at the same time, a victim, as described in (1).

In these cases SafeLine cannot forward the denouncements to the police; instead, the victim or wronged party must denounce the crime directly to the police.

Mentioned below are the most significant legislative adjustments for cyber-crimes whose suppression is of greater importance for the protection of society and in particular of its more vulnerable groups (children, immigrants, etc):

Child pornography:

art.348A of the Hellenic Penal Code and amendment of Act 3064/2002, "1. Any person who produces, owns, purchases, buys, transfers, distributes, supplies, sells or circulates pornographic material in any way, with a view to making a profit, is sentenced to at least one year's imprisonment and a fine of ten to one hundred thousand Euro, 2. Pornographic material in the sense of the previous paragraph consists of any description or real or virtual depiction, on any material medium, of the body of a minor, aimed at causing sexual stimulation, as well as the recording or depiction on any material medium, of a real, simulated or virtual carnal act enacted for the same purpose by or with a minor, 3. If any of the actions of the previous paragraph involve pornographic material connected to exploiting the need, intellectual weakness, deafness or inexperience of a minor or to exercising bodily violence against such a minor, this shall entail a prison sentence of up to ten years and a fine of fifty thousand to one hundred thousand Euro, and if such an act resulted in grievous bodily harm to the victim, this shall entail a sentence of at least ten years' imprisonment and a fine of one hundred thousand to five hundred thousand Euro". According to the Hellenic Penal Code, a minor is a person who has not completed his/her 17th year of age.
Act 5060/1931 on press offences and obscene publications, applicable in combination with the articles of the PC until the latest amendment,
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children, which has also been ratified by Greece with Act 2101/1992, where it is expressly stated that Contracting States will take all necessary measures to prevent the exploitation of children for the production of pornographic spectacles or material.

Racism and violence:

Constitution of Greece: Life, dignity and freedom of any person within the Greek territory are absolutely protected without any discrimination due to nationality, race, language and religious or political convictions. Exceptions are allowed only as provided by International Law.
art. 330 of the Hellenic Penal Code: anyone who, using physical violence or threat of physical violence or other illegal act or omission, forces another into an act, omission or toleration for which the victim has no obligation, is being punished with two years imprisonment.

Terrorism:

Act 1789/1988 which ratified the European Convention on the suppression of terrorism,
Act 2928/2001 which amended article 187 of the Hellenic Penal Code on criminal organisations,
Act 3034/2002 which ratified the International Convention on suppressing the financing of terrorism.

Local limits

Hellenic penal laws, in accordance with article 5 of the Hellenic Penal Code, are applied to acts taking place within the Hellenic territory, even if such acts are committed by foreigners, as well as to acts characterised by them as a felony or delinquency and committed by a Greek national abroad, if such acts are also punishable according to the laws of the country in which they were committed (art. 6 PC).

In the case of the crimes that are committed on the Internet, as the place of performance of the crime is considered to be either the place from where the site can be read, which practically means every country in which the users can have access to the Internet, or the place where the specific site is hosted by the Internet Service Provider.

In case where non-Greeks are involved and the Greek police authorities are unable to intervene directly, such a case will be handled mainly by SafeLine in co-operation with similar hotlines abroad. Where necessary, Greek police authorities and their European or international counterparts, such as Europol and Interpol, will fully co-operate for the prevention and suppression of cyber-crimes.