Collection of DNA samples to be governed by law

The collecting and filing of DNA samples by police should in future be governed by law, according to an amendment to the law approved by the government on Monday. At present the decision whether or not to collect a sample and file it is in the hands of the police, a state of affairs that has been criticized by human rights activists and NGOs as potentially dangerous. A database of DNA samples was established in 2002 and it now contains over 200,000 samples. The draft law will now go to the lower house for debate.