24. Power to intercept communications and the admissibility of intercepted communications
-
(1) Subject to subsection (2), a police officer may, for the purpose of obtaining evidence of the commission of an offence under this Act, apply, ex parte, to a Judge of the High Court, for an interception of communications order.
-
(2) A police officer may make an application under subsection (1), only with the prior written consent of the Attorney General.
-
(3) A judge to whom an application is made under subsection (1) may make an order—
-
(a) requiring a communications service provider to intercept and retain a specified communication or communications of a specified description received or transmitted, or about to be received or transmitted by that communications service provider;
-
(b) authorizing the police officer to enter any premises and to install on such premises, any device for the interception and retention of a specified communication or communications of a specified description and to remove and retain such device,
if the judge is satisfied that the written consent of the Attorney General has been obtained as required by subsection (2) and, that there are reasonable grounds to believe that material information relating to—
-
(i) the commission of an offence under this Act, or
-
(ii) the whereabouts of the person suspected by the police officer to have committed the offence,
is contained in that communication or communications of that description.
-
(4) Any information contained in a communication—
-
(a) intercepted and retained pursuant to an order under subsection (3);
-
(b) intercepted and retained in a foreign state in accordance with the law of that foreign state and certified by a Judge of that foreign state to have been so intercepted and retained,
shall be admissible in proceedings for an offence under this Act, as evidence of the truth of its contents notwithstanding any other law relating to hearsay.