Belgium's lower house passed a controversial bill on Tuesday giving police extra powers to fight terrorism, to the dismay of human rights lawyers who see it as a violation of the right to privacy, Reuters reported. The Chamber of Deputies approved the bill by 80 votes to eight with 37 abstentions, and it now needs to win Senate approval to pass into law. It would allow police to raid suspects' homes at any time of the day or night, and to carry out certain types of surveillance without permission from a magistrate. Police were previously restricted to conducting raids during the day, and were forbidden to take photographs of suspects without permission. "The old legislation allowed police to look around and see if a full investigation would be useful," said Justice Committee President Fons Borginon. "We now allow them to do that during the night." The bill was drafted by the federal prosecutor's office, which wants to be able to carry out investigations without having first to go through a cumbersome legal process, and is an extension to a recent law which made terrorism a crime. --More 2203 Local Time 1903 GMT
