Ljubljana - The information commissioner has asked for constitutional review of part of the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing act that is based on two inspection proceedings and related to processing of personal information by the Office for Money Laundering Prevention.

The Constitutional Court published the request to review nine articles of the act on Tuesday, with the newspaper Delo reporting that it has been filed by Information Commissioner Mojca Prelesnik.

Prelesnik has confirmed for Delo that the constitutional review is based on two inspection proceedings conducted by the Office of the Information Commissioner.

"There are serious and objective reasons to suspect that the legal regulation of personal information processing by the Office for Money Laundering Prevention is unconstitutional in a certain part," Delo quoted her request.

Pending the decision of the Constitutional Court, the inspection proceedings in which the applicant claims that there is an unfounded suspicion of illegal access to databases at the request of the office's former director have been suspended.

Also suspended are inspection proceedings in which the applicant requests from the Office for Money Laundering Prevention to be acquainted with her own information.

Constitutional judges will now rule whether the legal basis for processing of personal information by the office is proportionate and whether it provides individuals with appropriate legal security and predictability.

The current version of the money laundering and terrorism financing act was passed in March with 44 votes in favour and 36 against during the term of the Janez Janša government, after the first version of changes was rejected in February.

The Office of the Information Commissioner had taken issue with the changes already during the discussions in parliament, as had the parliamentary legal service, which noted the "stockpiling" of a large amount of personal information.

It also said that the restriction of an individual's right to get acquainted with their own personal information is disproportionate, that there is large-scale linking of databases, that powers of inspectors are too broad and that too much content is being left to implementing regulations.

While the previous government said the changes were needed to transpose the relevant EU directives, the opposition at the time was warning that the Office for Money Laundering Prevention was being given excessive powers.

The Finance Ministry said at the time that Slovenia was being late with transposing the directives, warning that it had already received an official warning from the European Commission, and might also suffer significant financial consequences.