MPs of the Legislative Chamber passed the Digital Evidence Bill in the second and third readings at its August 27 session and sent it to the Senate, the press service of the Chamber said.
The deputies noted that criminals have recently been using new methods to steal people's money from banks. In particular, the theft of money from accounts and electronic wallets in applications is committed by illegally copying and counterfeiting bank or other payment cards using hardware and software devices (carding).
At the same time, there are problems in Bill enforcement practice related to the recognition of electronic (digital) data as evidence and their inclusion in case materials, which creates difficulties in solving crimes, it was noted at the meeting.
The Bill has proposed to amend a number of legal acts to provide for the definition of the concept of digital evidence, the procedure for identifying, collecting, presenting, verifying, evaluating, recording and storing digital evidence, as well as the rights and obligations of participants in this process.
The Bill related to digital evidence has been submitted to parliament for the third time. Its two previous versions were rejected (in June 2022 and November 2023).
During the review of the Bill in the first reading on July 2, former MP Doniyor Ganiev, as well as the Chairman of the Legislative Chamber Committee on Innovative Development, Information Policy and Information Technology Ilkhom Abdullayev voiced their comments regarding the document, which "is fundamentally no different from previous Bills."
At the meeting on Tuesday, Ilkhom Abdullayev noted that the Bill was revised taking into account comments and suggestions, so now it reflects the interests and rights of citizens. According to him, when revising it, "it was important that it did not contradict the current state of Bill and information technology in this area in terms of terminology, technology and technology."
"This is very difficult to do. The most important document on cybersecurity is the Budapest Memorandum. In addition, preparations are underway for a global digital treaty, which is set to be adopted in the near future. It was very important for today and tomorrow that our adopted Bill corresponded to its norms... It was important for us that our terminology and procedural norms corresponded to international standards. We did this,” he said.
The MP also reported that Article 201-2 had been removed from the Bill, according to which “managers and other officials of enterprises, institutions and organizations are obliged, at the legal request of an official of the body conducting a pre-investigation check, an investigator, an investigator, a prosecutor or a court, to submit electronic data together with their media at their disposal, which are necessary for use in the production of investigative and judicial actions.”
“That is, the norm has been removed from the Bill that obliged virtually everyone to submit to the investigative bodies all the electronic data at their disposal,” he said.
A provision has been inserted into Article 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code, according to which “the seizure and search of personal electronic data shall be made the basis of the Bill and a court decision.” Ilkhom Abdullayev also thanked the media for their “prompt scrutiny of this Bill.” “Their attention allowed us to attract specialists, hold meetings at the level of OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe — ed.) experts and other organizations, which, ultimately, had a very high-quality impact on the Bill itself. I want to congratulate everyone,” he said.
