Lawyers point at omissions in wiretapping case investigation
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the high-profile wiretapping case have pointed out shortcomings in the judicial investigation, following the announcement on Tuesday by the Supreme Court prosecutor of the completion of the preliminary investigation.
They were reportedly surprised by the speed with which the court evaluated the case file, which was submitted by Deputy Prosecutor Achilleas Zisis only last Wednesday.
One of the lawyers’ legal objections concerns the decision to charge the four people involved in the illegal Predator spyware with misdemeanors instead of felonies. Authorities chose to ignore a law passed in 2019, which stipulates that violations of personal data should be prosecuted as felonies if they threaten the democratic system or national security.
According to Zacharias Kesses, the lawyer of journalist Thanasis Koukakis, the wiretapping of journalists, PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis and Hellenic Armed Forces chief Konstantinos Floros meet the criteria for more serious charges against the four individuals.
Legal circles also point out that crucial witnesses were not called by Deputy Prosecutor Achilleas Zisis, although their names were mentioned in the case documents.
For example, a company in Marousi that hosted employees of Intelexa, the company that developed the illegal Predator software. On December 16, 2021, the day the Citizen’s Lab investigation into Predator’s presence in Greece was published, three Greek employees of Intelexa went to the Marousi offices and removed computers and other equipment. Despite indications that these individuals were operating the software, they were never called by the prosecutor, not even as witnesses.
Intelexa employees who underwent COVID testing at a lab in Neo Psychiko in 2020-2021 were also not called to testify, even though their names were known to the authorities.
Zisis took testimony from 44 people, but the plaintiffs’ lawyers argue that in some cases he avoided asking crucial questions. For example, Panagiotis Kontoleon, former director of the National Intelligence Service (EYP), was not asked about the surveillance of Androulakis and Koukakis. Another point of criticism is that Zisis did not request from the US the information on which the US Treasury Department based its sanctions against Intelexa.
In addition, the lawyer of former journalist and MEP Giorgos Kyrtsos, Yiannis Matzouranis, stated that during the inspection at EYP, the inspectors appointed by the prosecutor did not request the physical files of the persons under surveillance.
Greek Supreme Court Prosecutor Georgia Adeilini on Tuesday announced the results of the investigation into the wiretapping case. The investigation found no involvement of any state agency in the use or purchase of the illegal Predator spyware discovered on the phones of numerous prominent Greek politicians, journalists and businessmen.
The phone-tapping case began in 2022, after Androulakis and Koukakis claimed they had been subjected to state surveillance using Predator spyware. It was later revealed that many high-profile individuals had Predator spyware installed on their devices while also under official surveillance by the EYP.
The allegations, amid growing concern within the European Union about the use of spyware, led to judicial investigations and the resignations of Kontoleon, the head of EYP, and the secretary general to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Grigoris Dimitriadis.
