ATHENS – Picking up his attacks, Greece’s major opposition SYRIZA leader said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is hiding behind his desk and refusing to come to Parliament to answer questions about an alleged use of spyware.

Tsipras, hoping to unseat Mitsotakis in mid-2023 elections and come back to power after being ousted by the New Democracy in July, 2019 snap polls, tabled a question over surveillance in Parliament but Mitsotakis didn’t show up to answer it.

Tsipras told Star TV that “guilty parties hide. The Prime Minister is being checked by the Parliament and the European Parliament. He uses the excuse of confidentiality, hides key witnesses, threatens those revealing things with ten years in jail.”

The Leftist leader referred to a report in the news site Documento – said to be sympathetic to his party – revealing the names of 33 people, including government officials, whose phones were supposedly infiltrated with spyware that the government has denied using.

“Mr. Mitsotakis is guilty and does not come to Parliament to respond. I am not a detective, I am a leader of the main opposition and I table questions. I am asking Mr. Mitsotakis whether any of the 31 individuals revealed by Documento were also legally tracked. Let him come to Parliament to tell us that none of the 31 individuals were not legally tracked.”

The head of a European Parliament committee looking into the use of spyware in the European Union, Sophie in’ t Veld from The Netherlands, said it seems likely, however that the government was using spyware.

The National Intelligence Service EYP has admitted bugging the phones of 15,745 people, including PASOK Socialist leader Nikos Androulakis, but said that it was done for national security and refuses to reveal any further information.