Cap. 391 Art. 2Interpretation. Cap. 254. Cap. 50. Cap. 399.

(1) In this Act-

"address" means any postal or telecommunication address;

"the Commissioner" means the Commissioner who holds office in terms of article 12;

"copy", in relation to intercepted information, means any of the following, whether or not in documentary form -

(a) any copy, extract or summary of the information; and

(b) any record of the identities of the persons to or by whom the information was sent, and cognate expressions shall be construed accordingly;

"external communication" means a communication sent or received outside Malta;

"interception", in relation to a warrant, includes the obtaining possession of, disrupting, destroying, opening, interrupting, suppressing, stopping, seizing, eavesdropping on, surveilling, recording, copying, listening to and viewing of communications and the extraction of information from such communications;

"the Minister" means the Minister from time to time designated by the Prime Minister as being responsible for the Security Service;

"person" includes a body corporate established by law; "postal" includes anything which in terms of the Post Office Act is transmissible by post as well as anything which is covered by article 21 of the Official Secrets Act; "radiocommunications" has the same meaning as in the Electronic Communications (Regulation) Act; "senior government official" is a reference to a Permanent

*See Article 1(2) as originally enacted, which subarticle has been omitted under the Statute Law Revision Act, 1980, and Legal Notice 141 of 1996. or by a combination of any two or more of such systems and shall include telegraphy and telephony; "working day" means any day other than a Saturday or a public holiday.

(2) For the purposes of this Act a communication which is in the course of its transmission otherwise than by means of a radiocommunications or telecommunication system shall be deemed to be in the course of its transmission by means of such a system if its mode of transmission identifies it as a communication which -

(a) is to be or has been transmitted by means of such a system; and

(b) has been sent from, or is to be sent to, a country or territory outside Malta.

(3) For the purposes of this Act conduct which constitutes or, if it took place in Malta, would constitute one or more offences shall be regarded as serious crime if, and only if -

(a) it involves the use of violence, results in substantial financial gain or is conduct by a large number of persons in pursuit of a common purpose; or

(b) the offence or one of the offences is an offence for which a person who has attained the age of eighteen and has no previous convictions would be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a minimum term of not less than three years; or

(c) the offence or one of the offences being a crime is an offence which has been scheduled as such by the Prime Minister by notice in the Gazette.