Greece's conservative government was rocked Friday by a long-simmering surveillance scandal after its intelligence chief and a close aide to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis resigned in the space of an hour. Panagiotis Kontoleon offered his resignation due to management "errors" during his time in the role, Mitsotakis' office said in a statement.
The announcement that Kontoleon had resigned from his
position at the head of national intelligence service EYP came less than an
hour after the secretary general of the prime minister's office, Grigoris
Dimitriadis, also quit.
The resignations came a week after the leader of the
country's Socialist opposition party, Nikos Androulakis, filed a complaint with
the supreme court over "attempted" spying on his mobile phone using
Predator malware.
Two Greek journalists have also taken legal action this year
after they claimed to have been victims of surveillance.
Androulakis on Friday called for a special investigation by
parliament into the incident.
"I never expected the Greek government to spy on me
using the darkest practices," he said.
The government has consistently denied any state
involvement, saying it had not bought software of that type, but the rows have
sparked an outcry in the country.
Government spokesman Yiannis Economou has said it was
"plausible" that individuals used Predator to spy and that all of
Europe faced surveillance threats.
In November, Greek minister of state George Gerapetritis had
insisted to AFP that there is "no surveillance of journalists in
Greece" by the state.
"Greece fully adheres to the values of democratic
society and rule of law, especially pluralism and the freedom of the
press," Gerapetritis said.
As such, he argued there was "no need for further
action" to verify the alleged monitoring of investigative journalist
Stavros Malichudis.
Kontoleon, who was appointed EYP head in 2019 after
Mitsotakis's conservative party won power that year, had implied while in that
role that the journalists had been targeted on the order of foreign
intelligence services.
Investigative websites Reporters United and Inside Story
have accused Dimitriadis -- a nephew of Mitsotakis -- of being linked to the
alleged spying scandals involving Androulakis and Greek financial journalist
Thanasis Koukakis.
Dimitriadis on Friday threatened to sue Reporters United and
leftist daily Efsyn unless they withdraw a story on the case. Koukakis was also
warned to refrain from retweeting the story.
In one of his first acts upon assuming power in 2019,
Mitsotakis raised eyebrows by attaching the national intelligence service to
his office.
The main opposition party, the left-wing Syriza, called the
affair "a huge scandal". Its leader, former premier Alexis Tsipras,
said the resignation of Dimitriadis was "an admission of guilt" and
that Mitsotakis himself bore some of the responsibility.
"Mr Mitsotakis must give explanations to the Greek
people over his own Watergate," Tsipras said.
A dystopian, Orwellian reality
Experts note that Predator, originally developed in North
Macedonia and subsequently in Israel, can access both messages and
conversations.
"A few days ago I was informed by the European
Parliament that there was an attempt to bug my mobile phone with Predator
surveillance software," Androulakis told the media as he left a court in
Athens on July 26.
"Finding out who is behind these harmful practices is
not a personal matter but a democratic duty," he added.
The European Parliament set up a special service for MEPs to
check their phones for illegal surveillance software following hacks using a
spyware similar to Predator called Pegasus.
Androulakis used the service for "a precautionary check
of his phone on June 28, 2022".
"From the first check, a suspicious link related to the
Predator surveillance tool was detected," his PASOK party said in a
statement.
The software can infiltrate mobile phones to extract data or
activate a camera or microphone to spy on their owners.
"Predator is among the most expensive spyware and is
out of reach for individuals," cybersecurity specialist Anastasios
Arampatzis told AFP, saying only a state would need its sophisticated security
features.
"Security and the protection of one's private life must
be guaranteed by any democratic regime. If a state spies on its citizens, we're
heading towards a dystopian, Orwellian reality."
Spain's intelligence chief was sacked earlier this year
after it emerged that top politicians -- including Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
and Catalan separatists -- had been targeted by phone hacking.
0 comments:
Post a Comment