PASOK wants investigative committee to probe wiretapping case

Greece’s socialist PASOK opposition party has formally requested that Parliament set up an investigative committee to look into the wiretapping scandal targeting its leader Nikos Androulakis.

The country’s conservative government is under pressure following the recent discovery that the mobile phone of Androulakis, also an MEP, was tapped by order of the National Intelligence Service (EYP), which reports directly to the prime minister’s office. Androulakis had earlier revealed he had been informed by the European parliament of an attempt to bug his mobile phone with Predator malware.

In a letter to House speaker Kostas Tasoulas on Monday, PASOK said that such practices “amount to a violation of fundamental principles and institutions of [democracy] as they impinge, to say the least, on the right to free and equal elections, as well as on the principle of party pluralism.” 

Also on Monday, PASOK, which is Greece’s third-largest party, submitted a formal request for the convening this week of the Parliament’s Committee on Institutions and Transparency over the scandal.