Court says state fully entitled to run DNA database of serious criminals

The Supreme Administrative Court has upheld the right of the state to establish and operate a DNA database of criminals. The court was dealing with a complaint made by the Office for the Protection of Private Data which argued that the database violated people’s right to privacy. The judge ruled that while such a data base was undisputedly an invasion into people’s privacy rights, offenders of serious crimes, people who had knowingly broken the law, did not merit the same rights to privacy as the general public. The court ruled that the state must have the right to run a database which would serve public interest in helping the police uncover the perpetrators of serious crimes.