Eleni StamatoukouAthensBIRNDecember 8, 202218:07Political parties in parliament confront one another over government’s attempt to put a lid on the Predator spyware scandal by passing a new bill on communications privacy.
Secretary general of the Communist Party of Greece Dimitris Koutsoumpas (C), speaks in a debate on a proposal to set up a parliamentary probe into the phone-tapping scandal in Greece, 29 August 2022. Phto: EPA-EFE/Yannis Kolesidis
The Greek parliament on Thursday started debating a new bill of the Ministry of Justice entitled “Procedure for removing the privacy of communications, cyber security, and protection of citizens’ communications.”
Accused of targeting politicians, journalists, and others with the illegal spyware Predator, the government has moved to reform existing legislation on the subject after media outlet Inside Story revealed the connection between the spyware, the government, and the National Intelligence Service, NIS.
Only ruling New Democracy supports the new bill. It has been opposed by all the opposition parties except the far-right Elliniki Lysi party. Opposition SYRIZA party filed an objection about its unconstitutionality.
Political parties and others oppose many sections of the new bill. One of the points that attracts most disagreement is that the law does not have a retroactive effect in terms of informing citizens about their having been monitored.
Specifically, it stipulates that only a diplomat and a senior officer will be the commander of the NIS.
After three years, people who have been wiretapped will have the right to ask to be notified. The records will be deleted after six months, but authorities will keep the files for ten years. Any individual’s use of malicious software is prohibited, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras accused PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis of turning the NIS into a “family affair” and said that for 1.5 months, he has been hiding a fact that proved his “guilt and cowardice.”
“You are ultimately deluded or morally complicit in the wiretapping scandal. I don’t know which is worse for the country,” Tsipras said. “If you are proven to be lying, you will take responsibility and resign. You will not stay a day longer in your position if you are proven guilty,” the opposition leader emphasized.
Mitsotakis answered Tsipras by asking him about the use of Pegasus spyware during his own term in office in 2016. Tsipras, in a TV interview on Star channel, did not deny that Pegasus spyware was operating in Greece when he was prime minister, as Citizen Lab has revealed since 2018. But he insisted no one had reported it. “I didn’t happen to be informed, but I don’t rule out the possibility that there was,” he answered..
Greek media said the bill will not be voted on quickly as many MPs have asked to speak.
In the meantime, the New York Times reported that the Greek Foreign Ministry allegedly gave Intellexa, the company that markets the illegal Predator software, two licenses to export Predator to third countries, specifically Madagascar.
Earlier, Inside Story, in collaboration with Lighthouse Reports and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, reported that a jet linked to an Israeli spyware tycoon delivered surveillance tech from the EU to Sudanese militia.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
