Prepaid SIM cards should be removed from the market if they represent a threat to national or European security, said liberal senator Marius Obreja, the president of the Parliament’s Defense Commission.

Telecom operators could set up a subscription instead of the prepaid cards, where people need to present an ID, the MP suggested, reports local Mediafax.

The law on prepaid cards that has been voted by the Parliament, but was challenged by the Romanian Constitutional Court, is useless, Obreja added. The law asks people who buy prepaid cards to show IDs. A person can buy ten such cards with his ID, but he can later sell them to other people without asking for their IDs, he explained.

The Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) has confirmed that Romanian prepaid SIM cards have been used in several conflict areas, including in Iraq and Syria. Some of these cards may have been used by members of terrorist organizations.

editor@romania-insider.com