PASOK leader in no doubt of PM’s knowledge of wiretap

PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis said on Thursday he believes Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis knew about the wiretaps on his phone by the National intelligence Agency (EYP) and the efforts to infect it with the illegal spyware Predator. 

Asked at a day show on Alpha channel if he thinks Mitsotakis knew, he responded: “Definitely.”

“I have a theory why he knew, and that is because the story of Mr [Thanasis] Koukakis had preceded me. Do you have the impression that as prime minister he would not have asked his colleagues, what is this Mr Koukakis, why is he shouting, what is Predator, why does he say that he was being surveilled? As his [surveillance] case preceded mine it is obvious that he would have asked and been given some information,” he said, referring to financial journalist Thanassis Koukakis, who was the first person to reveal that his phone had been infected with Predator. 

Androulakis also said he believed the reason he was snooped on was because the government did not want him to be elected leader of PASOK. “My surveillance started as soon as i announced my candidacy and ended a few days after I was elected president,” he said. 

“How am i going to govern with Mitsotakis when he says I am obsessed with him when he was spying on me?” he added. 

The wiretapping scandal in Greece concerns the use of illegal spyware in wiretaps on dozens of people, including journalists, politicians, businesspeople and members of the public in Greece, since the scandal broke in 2022.