ATHENS – PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis took his case of being tracked by the National Intelligence Service (EYP) to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), it was announced on Tuesday.

Androulakis had announced the move during a press conference a fortnight ago, a party statement said.

As PASOK-KINAL added, “Although (Androulakis’) tracking by EYP over three months in 2021 was acknowledged officially – by the prime minister himself – he was not afforded the opportunity until now either to be officially informed about the reasons the ‘intrusion’ on his cellphone had been ordered, or to initiate action before a court or in Parliament to identify this intrusion as illegal, which it truly was. In this manner, his right to ‘effective remedy’, established by Article 13 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), was violated.”

In his complaint to the European Court of Human Rights, Androulakis is underlining the fact that neither current Greek legislation nor a new draft bill on EYP call for “a basic effective legal assistance for this purpose, something that ECHR has unequivocably condemned in a series of decisions over the years,” the statement said. By resorting to the European court, Androulakis hopes to guarantee all Greek citizens’ rights to private life and freedom of communication for all, it added.

(ECHR’s Article 13 on the right to an effective remedy states, “Everyone whose rights and freedoms as set forth in [the] Convention are violated shall have an effective remedy before a national authority notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity.”)