ATHENS – A report by Greece’s Supreme Court prosecutors clearing the National Intelligence Service (EYP) and government officials of using spyware is part of a concerted coverup to protect the ruling New Democracy, rival party leaders said.

The findings were made by Prosecutor Georgia Adilini and Deputy Prosecutor Achilleas Zisis that said only four officials of a company that was headquartered in Athens and sold Predator spyware should be charged.

That was blasted by critics as a fast whitewash that was released with Parliament out of session and Greeks on traditional holidays in August, a dead news month, so that there couldn’t be reactions.

But there were from the major opposition SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis who accused the government of  “an unprecedented operation to cover up the phone tapping scandal,” in the Sunday edition of To Vima.

He said that New Democracy lawmakers who are a majority in Parliament blocked his call for the conclusions in the report, also tied to EYP bugging the phones of 15,745 people – including that of PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis.

Kasselakis noted that in 2016 New Democracy – then out of power – didn’t object when Appeals Court Prosecutor Georgia Tsatani was called by Parliament to clarify charges against SYRIZA’s then justice minister Dimitris Papaggelopoulos.

“New Democracy has therefore also put its parliamentary seal on the unprecedented cover up operation for the phone-tapping scandal. A hypocritical and dangerous stance for democracy, as the scandal strikes at the core of the democratic regime,” he said, reported the state’s Athens-Macedonia News Agency.

He said that the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis “is drastically moving away from the European acquis, competing with Hungary … for the most violations of the rule of law, attempts to manipulate justice and in providing extensive immunity and protection for the protagonists of major scandals.”

He said that SYRIZA “will indefatigably continue the struggle to defend democracy, the Constitution and the rule of law in Parliament and in society. We will continue the effort to coordinate the progressive forces so as to not allow a cover-up of either the surveillance scandal nor of the government’s responsibilities for the state crime at Tempi,” a 2023 train crash that killed 57 people.

Androulakis told To Vima that, “In the last two years, a scandal of massive proportions has been unfolding in our country, and however much some may try to downplay its significance, they cannot conceal the heavy blow struck against independent institutions and the rule of law in the country.”

He mocked the high court report and said, “Another step was made toward the degradation of our institutions, which once again leaves our country exposed,” noting that the prosecutor said it was a “coincidence” that EYP and someone using Predator were going after the same targets.

SHAM IN WHITE

“This part of the investigation has been shelved. It is now plainly visible that another black page has been written for Greek democracy, which takes us further away from the European acquis,” Androulakis added.

He said it was a surveillance scandal and violation of human rights, claiming that state services and individuals were monitoring ministers, opposition politicians, journalists, business people and high-ranking police and military officials.

He also said that a coverup extended to the government changing the makeup of the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy to stop its investigation and EYP refusing to comply with a Council of State (CoS) ruling ordering the should be told why he was under surveillance.

He said he’s filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights over EYP’s refusal to comply with the CoS ruling and was now preparing to file two additional suits over the violation of the right to a fair trial due to the inadequate investigation and also for the violation of the right to a private life.

Adilini said she found no evidence linking EYP, the police force or its anti-terrorism division to the use of Predator spyware, which opposition groups alleged was used against some government critics.

Speaking in Parliament earlier, Androulakis called the investigation a “sham” and demanded that lawmakers be shown full conclusions of the probe, detailed in a 300-page report that has not been made public.

“It’s a shameful practice to sell this type of software to illiberal regimes, knowing that they are most likely to be used against human rights (activists), against political opponents, and endangering the lives of thousands of people in third world countries,” Androulakis said.

In March, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions against two individuals and companies based in Greece, Ireland, Hungary and North Macedonia, all connected to spyware software developers called the Intellexa consortium.

The government said its opponents had baselessly conflated the use of spyware with legally authorized wiretaps carried out by EYP in the interests of national security and that the targets wouldn’t be named nor informed.

“Your political narrative was not served by the facts. What should we do?,” Makis Voridis, a Minister of State told lawmakers. “While you were hurling slander, lies, and falsehoods at us – with nothing based on facts or the law – we were waiting for justice. And today, that day arrived,” in the report’s release, he said.

The alleged use of Predator spyware in Greece led to the resignation in 2022 of the then head of EYP as well as its liaison to Mitsotakis – the Premier’s nephew Grigoris Dimitriadis – who is suing journalists for reporting on it.

(Material from the Associated Press was used in this report)