The scandal of telephone spy software in Greece moves to the court while criticism demands concealment

He became known as Watergate in Greece: Spyware software and Greek intelligence have targeted mobile phones of government ministers, military officers, judges and journalists.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described him as a scandal, but no government official was charged to court and criticism accuse the government of trying to hide the truth.

Instead, a low storage judge will hear the case on Wednesday against two Israelis and two Greeks, which would have been involved with marketing spy software known as Predator.

During the summer of 2022, the current leader of the Socialist Pasok party, Nikos Androulakis – then deputy for deputy – was informed by the IT experts from the EU parliament that he had received a malicious text message from an unknown sender, containing spy software.

This predatory spy software, which is marketed by the Israeli company based in Athens Intelxa, can have access to messages, camera and a device of a device – turning a person’s phone against them.

Things degenerate after Androulakis also discovered that it had been followed for “national security reasons” by the National Intelligence Service (EYP) of Greece.

Only one month after taking office in the summer of 2019, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis placed Eyp directly under his supervision.

His conservative government was suddenly at the heart of the crisis. Eyp’s chief Panagiotis Kontoleon resigned, as was the best assistant and nephew of the Prime Minister, Grigoris Dimitriadis, who was the affair between the Eyp and the Prime Minister’s office.

Predator had been used to try to trap at least 87 people, according to the Hellenic Data Protection Authority. Twenty-seven of the persons subject to surveillance were monitored simultaneously by EYP, in particular ministers on service and superior military officers.

Despite the criticisms that the common targets of Eyp and Predator involved a common surveillance strategy, the government insisted that it was a coincidence and that no law enforcement agency had never used Predator, whose use was illegal in Greece at the time. A new law adopted in 2022 has since legalized the use of the security of the state of surveillance software under strict conditions.

But the government did not respond why the secret services had spied on the chief of staff general of national defense, lieutenant-general Konstantinos Floros and Kostis Hatzidakis, then member of the cabinet and today vice-president of the government.

In July 2024, a report from the Greek Supreme Court, seen by the BBC, concluded that there was “clearly no link” between the predators and the representatives of the government.

“There is a prosecutor’s report and the answers are clear. Justice has spoken. There is no doubt about what he said,” Pavlos Marinakis government spokesman said journalists.

The BBC has repeatedly contacted Marinakis to comment on this, but at the time of publication, did not receive an answer.

On Wednesday, the four individuals in Athens are all faced with charges of offense – which would have been connected to the marketing of Predator. Two of the accused would have links with state officials, but he has never been seriously investigated, the opposition and the daycares said.

“What has started as a political scandal has now become an institutional scandal, by clogging both the judiciary and the independent authorities,” explains Thanasis Koukakis, a financial journalist who is investigating corruption, and among the objectives of double surveillance – both by predators and secret services “for national security reasons”.

Eliza Trintafylou, journalist for Inside Story, has reported the scandal since her start.

“If someone has not followed the electronic listening scandal, he would think that four people, on their own initiative and for their own personal reasons, have hit the phones of 87 people in Greece, using advanced spy software that is otherwise marketed exclusively to state the intelligence services and the law enforcement authorities in the world.”

“No minister, judge or military agent has filed a complaint concerning so far to be targeted with Predator. None of them has been called to testify as a witness,” she said.

After the scandal broke out, the Greek government introduced a new law on communications confidentiality.

There are now more guarantees for law enforcement authorities, but at the same time, new legislation has been criticized because it actually deprives citizens of the right to learn if they had been under surveillance before.

In addition, the Greek government has received criticisms for its lack of will to discover who spied on its ministers and its members of the army – criticisms who only made the authorities made a descent into the intellecta offices in Athens, months after the parade of the listening scandal. They are left empty -handed.

Christos Rammos, former principal judge and president of Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE) when the scandal broke out was a key figure to discover the facts behind electronic listening. It was not an easy task and faced many obstacles on the way.

“In Greece, the political system cannot tolerate independent authorities, so-called checks and counterweights on power. The electronic listening affair was a traumatic experience for our democracy,” Rammos told the BBC. “I was subjected to personal attacks. It was an open war.”

The electronic listening scandal received international attention and a meticulous examination since one of the first victims, Nikos Andoulakis, was a deputy deputy. The European Parliament has set up a special investigation committee to investigate the use of PEGASUS and Espions of equivalent surveillance (PEGA).

His rapporteur, the former deputy deputy Sophie in VELD, told the BBC that the Greek government had made “all the possible attempts to hide the truth. They have, at each turn, refused cooperation”.

“All spy software is not something that you can see in isolation. This does not happen in a vacuum. It is used to silence critical voices. It is used to stifle control. But, the damage has been caused; it has had a scary effect.

“I had just returned from a coffee with one of my friends who was also looking for spy software and she said:” I cannot be sure that my phone is safe from the Greek government “- literally.” “”