Ruling party MPs dismissed an opposition call to summon Supreme Court prosecutors to explain their decision to acquit state institutions of responsibility for the ‘Predator Gate’ spyware and wiretapping scandal.
By Eleni Stamatoukou
Aug. 2, 2024
The Special Permanent Committee on Institutions and Transparency of the Greek parliament on Friday rejected the opposition’s request to summon Supreme Court prosecutors to explain their ruling on telephone surveillance, which acquitted state institutions of responsibility.
Ruling New Democracy MPs defeated the opposition’s proposal. The leader of the opposition Pleusi Eleftherias party, Zoe Konstantopoulou, said. “There is an attempt by the government to violently and quickly close the committee.”
Five opposition parties – SYRIZA, PASOK, Pleusi Eleftherias, New Left and the Greek Communist Party, KKE – asked parliament to summon the prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Georgia Adeilini, and the deputy prosecutor, Achilleas Zisis, to explain their decision to archive the case of the wiretapping scandal.
A New Democracy MP on the committee said such a summons was not envisaged in the constitution. “The opposition wants the Institutions and Transparency Committee to replace the judiciary, while prosecutors of the Supreme Court cannot be called to parliament to testify about a case they have investigated,” said the MP, Thanos Pleuris.
He argued that the call violated the separation of powers, and said sending the report and case file to parliament had violated the criminal code because a criminal proceeding was in progress.
The wiretapping scandal erupted in Greece in 2022, focusing on allegations that the illegal spyware Predator was used to monitor or attempt to monitor journalists, politicians and other public figures. The New York Times suggested that the fact that some people’s mobile phones were simultaneous tapped by the Greek intelligence agency EYP and infected by the Predator spyware indicated that “the spy service, and whoever implanted the spyware, were working hand in hand.”
But the Supreme Court Prosecution Office on July 30 concluded that no state ministry or agency had used illegal Predator spy software or any other surveillance software.
The Supreme Court Prosecution Office also concluded that Vasiliki Vlachou, the prosecutor at the Greek intelligence agency EYP, followed the procedure provided by Greek law when she lifted communications privacy regulations for 2020-24, allowing the use of surveillance software.
However, it said there were grounds “for the initiation of criminal prosecution … against certain legal representatives and beneficial owners of companies for criminal acts, such as the violation of the privacy of telephone communication.”
These companies, it said, had been involved in violating the privacy of telephone communications of politicians, journalists and others in other countries as well, combined with similar “targets” in Greece.
The ruling sparked criticism, with the opposition accusing the government of covering up the wiretapping scandal.
“First, the government infected the secret services and now it infects the judiciary as well. This is the reality,” said the leader of PASOK, Nikos Androulakis, whose mobile phone Predator had attempted to access.
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