BEIRUT: Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced Monday that he has renewed a request to provide security agencies with telecoms data in 2013.

The request, put forward by the interior and defense ministries, stipulates that the Telecoms Ministry extends an existing request to provide data to security agencies which expired at the end of 2012.

The access of telecoms data is needed by the security bodies to investigate the October assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, who was killed in a car blast in Beriut’s Ashrafieh.

A source close to Mikati told The Daily Star that the prime minister signed the request Friday and referred it to the Telecoms Ministry.

Last week, the Cabinet failed to reach an agreement over the matter.

Following the session, Information Minister Walid Daouk said that the Cabinet heard a report from a legal expert on the process of such requests.

According to Daouk, Judge Shukri Sader, the head of the Shura Council, said the request “will become effective following the signatures of the interior and defense ministers and the prime minister.”

Previously, a judicial committee tasked with the issue asked the Telecoms Ministry to give security bodies the data up until the end of 2012.

The data includes the International Mobile Subscriber Identity, which holds key information about a cellphone, including its location, and the time and callers in a conversation.