Greece urged to dig harder on phone surveillance scandal
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Loading... - Lucia Manzo
- 07 Nov 2022
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A European parliamentary committee investigating the use of spyware in the 27-country bloc urged Greek officials on Friday to do more to shed light on a phone surveillance scandal that targeted opposition politicians and journalists.
“We learned a lot but we also still feel that a lot of our questions remain to be answered,” committee head Jeroen Lenaers said after a fact-finding visit to Greece and fellow European Union member Cyprus.
And the committee rapporteur, Sophie in ’t Veld, said while no definite proof emerged on who installed and used Predator spyware on the Greek victims' phones, and why, “everything is pointing in the direction of people in government circles.”
The scandal, which shook Greece's center-right government this year, centered on the EYP secret service tapping opposition party leader Nikos Androulakis' phone. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he was unaware of the operation, which he said was legal — on national security grounds — but wrong. EYP's chief and a close Mitsotakis aide resigned.
Apart from EYP, Androulakis, head of the left-wing PASOK party — Greece's third-largest — was separately targeted with Predator spyware, as were another opposition lawmaker and three journalists. The government denies using Predator, which allows the monitoring of calls, messages, photos or video on a phone.
Last month a Greek parliamentary committee investigated Androulakis' surveillance but its overall conclusions remain classified. Read More...
