Greek Court Clears State Institutions of Involvement With Illegal Spyware
Source: Balkan Insight
Opposition MPs expressed dismay after the Prosecution Office of the Greek Supreme Court on Tuesday concluded that no state ministry or agency had used illegal Predator spy software, or any other surveillance software.
“There was absolutely no involvement with the spy software Predator or any other similar software by a state agency, namely the National Intelligence Service (EYP), the Anti-Terrorist unit (D.A.E.E.B.) and more generally the Ministry of Citizens Protection or any government official,” Supreme Court Prosecutor Georgia Adeilini said.
Provisions lifting the privacy of communications issued by Vasiliki Vlachou, Prosecutor of the EYP for 2020-2024, followed the procedure provided by Greek law, the court said.
However, the court said that there were sufficient grounds “for the initiation of criminal prosecution … against certain legal representatives and beneficial owners of companies for criminal acts, such as the violation of the privacy of telephone communication.” These companies, it said, had been involved in violating the privacy of telephone communications of politicians, journalists and others in other countries as well, combined with similar “targets” in Greece.
Opposition leaders reacted with disappointment.
“Today … my confidence in the Greek justice system has been seriously shaken. Unfortunately, this now coincides with the widespread feeling of the Greek people that justice is not the last refuge of the wronged,” wrote the leader of the left-wing SYRIZA party, Stefanos Kasselakis, on social media.
The preliminary examination into the wiretapping case lasted two years and more than 40 witnesses were examined.
They included politicians, journalists, representatives of mobile phone companies, Commanders, Deputy Commanders and other members of the National Intelligence Service, EYP, members of the Greek Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE) and the National Transparency Authority, NTA, senior police officers, the Intelligence Management and Analysis Directorate, the Finance Directorate as well as the Electronic Crime Prosecution Directorate.
Grigoris Dimitriadis, nephew and former secretary of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, resigned in August 2022 over revelations of alleged involvement with Intellexa, a company that sells Predator in Greece. He denied wrongdoing and sued the media involved in the reports – Reporters United, Efimerida ton Syntakton, as well as the journalist Thanasis Koukakis, whose phone had been infected with Predator. His resignation was followed by that of the then head of the EYP, Panagiotis Kontoleon.
The wiretapping scandal, known as Predator Gate, or the Greek Watergate, and which has occupied the Greek media since 2022, concerns the use of Predator to monitor or attempt to monitor journalists, politicians and other public figures.
The New York Times suggested that the simultaneous tapping of a victim’s phone by the EYP and its Predator infection “indicate that the spy service, and whoever implanted the spyware, were working hand in hand”.
The original article: belongs to Balkan Insight .
