Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Wiretapping telephone conversations and the interception of other modes of communication are against the law because they go against the Constitution and are in breach of human rights, Attorney General Basrief Arief says.

"However, sometimes interception is needed to deal with issues of state security," Basrief told a recent seminar on the interception of communications, in Jakarta.

He added that a law was needed to govern the practice to provide a legal umbrella to state officials with the authority to intercept communications, to violations of human rights.

A recent ruling by the Constitutional Court has ordered the government and House of Representatives to begin deliberating a bill on the interception of communications, but this has not begun.