PM Mitsotakis on Monday said that he knew nothing about the surveillance of politicians and others by the intelligence service, leaving many questions unanswered.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, July 5, 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/JULIEN WARNAND
“There are no shadows allowed in our republic,” Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Monday, starting his televised message regarding the “Greek Watergate scandal”, as many describe it.
At the end of July, BIRN wrote about the new case of surveillance by Predator software of Nikos Androulakis, head of PASOK-KINAL, the third-largest party in parliament. Androulakis almost fell victim to Predator, for which reason he has filed an indictment to the Supreme Court.
After the disclosure of the surveillance case against Androulakis and journalists Thanasis Koukakis and Stavros Malichoudis, the secretary of the PM, his nephew, Grigoris Dimitriadis, resigned.
According to the media outlet Reporters United and the newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton EfSyn, Dimitriadis allegedly owned a company that had dealings with Intellexa, a company that sells Predator spyware in Greece.
Dimitriadis’ resignation was followed by that of the head of the National Intelligence Service, Panagiotis Kontoleon.
Although political control of the National Intelligence Service lies directly with the Prime Minister, Mitsotakis, on Monday he stated: “What was done may have been in accordance with the letter of the law, but was wrong. I was not aware of it and, obviously, I would never allow it!”.
To add to the complications, official government sources told Greek media that the declassification of Androulakis’s mobile phone was requested by the intelligence services of Ukraine and Armenia.
The ambassadors of Ukraine and Armenia have publicly denied this claim on their social media.
The PM said that the case highlighted the lack of additional “filters” in the operations of the intelligence service. On the other hand, he emphasized the intelligence service’s important role “in Greece’s readiness to face challenges such as those [from Turkey] in the Evros or the Aegean; in our permanent diplomatic and defence armour; but also in society’s daily battle with terrorism and crime”.
“A slippage, therefore, cannot overshadow a project of measurable national benefit. And one does not need to be an expert to realize how valuable reliable information is in the complex world in which we live,” he added.
He did not mention anything about the surveillance of journalists, lawyers, and ordinary people by the Predator spyware.
Since his resignation Dimitriadis has sued the media outlet Reporters United, the newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton (EfSyn), and the Greek journalist Thanasis Koukakis, seeking damages.
Dimitriadis is demanding 150,000 euros from Reporters United and the journalists Nikolas Leontopoulos and Thodoris Chondrogiannos and the article’s withdrawal. From EfSyn he is seeking 250,000 euros in damages for its story published on August 4. From Thanasis Koukakis he has asked for 1,000 euros per day if he does not withdraw his tweets about the revelations of the Reporters United’s and EfSyn investigations.
Reporters Without Borders RSF has condemned Dimitriadis’ lawsuits and called on the Greek government to reestablish a relationship of trust with the journalistic community.
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