The left-wing weekly Documento publishes a list of 14 people reportedly spied on by Greek intelligence using Predator spyware.
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Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (Reuters)
left wing weekly documentation Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP) was exposed to wiretap a number of high-ranking military personnel on the orders of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
documentation has released a list of 14 people who were reportedly spied on by Greek intelligence using Predator spyware.
According to the publication, the EYP has been monitoring the country’s military leaders, notably the Greek Defense Chief of Staff Konstantinos Floros and the Greek Army Chief of Staff Charalambos Larcis.
According to the paper, EYP also targeted other high-profile figures, including several businessmen, a Greek MEP and a journalist.
Syriza, one of Greece’s biggest opposition parties, said it had asked the prime minister’s response to the newspaper’s report, adding that the current controversy was one of the “worst moments in Greek history”.
At the same time, Greek government spokesperson Ioannis Oikonomou denounced the report as a “hodgepodge of baseless claims”.
Greece has been on the brink of wiretapping in recent months when the government admitted that Nikos Androulakis, a member of the European Parliament and leader of the Greek opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement, had been wiretapped by the EYP. We are in crisis.
Four lists of individuals reportedly spied on by Greek security services have already been released documentation the past few weeks.
Among these lists are former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, Minister of State Giorgos Gerapetritis, Minister of State Akis Scherzos and Nikos Dendias.
Flashback
The “bugging scandal” occurred in July when Nikos Androulakis, MEP and leader of the Socialist Party (PASOK), complained of an alleged attempt to wiretap mobile phones using Predator spyware.
Within days, it emerged that Androulakis was under separate scrutiny by the state spy agency before becoming leader of PASOK, the country’s third largest political party. Two journalists and one senior opposition politician also claim he was spied on.
The scandal forced an intelligence agency boss and the prime minister’s aide and nephew to resign in August.
The government has adamantly rejected the use of illegal spy software. However, while admitting that the National Intelligence Service tracked down Andororakis, it does not explain why.
Mitsotakis has pledged to enact legislation to ban the sale of malicious spyware. But critics point out that one of his first moves as prime minister in 2019 was to link the National Intelligence Agency to his personal office.
At the time, the European Parliament’s committee investigating wiretapping in Greece and other European Union countries called for a more thorough investigation.