The Greek prime minister says he knew nothing about the wiretapping.
(Photo: AP)
Athens There have been rumors for months, but now it’s certain: last Friday it became known that the Greek secret service EYP bugged Nikos Androulakis, MEP and head of the second largest opposition party, Pasok, and financial journalist Thanasis Koukakis for months.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says he didn’t know anything about it, even though the secret service reports directly to him. EYP boss Panagiotis Kontoleon and the secretary general responsible for the secret service in the office of the prime minister, Grigoris Dimitriadis, a nephew and longtime confidant of the prime minister, had to resign their offices on Friday.
But that’s not the end of the affair for Mitsotakis. Even pro-government newspapers wrote on Sunday of “the most serious government crisis” since Mitsotakis took office three years ago. The left-wing opposition party Syriza spoke at the weekend of a “Greek Watergate” for which Mitsotakis was responsible. She is therefore demanding the resignation of the prime minister.
Syriza boss Alexis Tsipras recalled that immediately after taking office in the summer of 2019, Mitsotakis had made a change in the law that put the secret service under his own direct control. Tsipras is now demanding information about which other politicians and journalists are being spied on.
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On Thursday evening, intelligence chief Kontoleon was called to the Prime Minister’s Office to report. There he is said to have stated that Androulakis had been bugged at the request of the secret services of Ukraine and Armenia.
The financial journalist Koukakis researched cases of corruption in politics and business
As justification, the foreign services are said to have said that they are interested in Androulakis’ role in a European Parliament committee that dealt with the EU’s trade relations with China. The public prosecutor responsible, Vasiliki Vlachou, approved the wiretapping request in September 2021. The government was reportedly not informed.
In April 2022, some press freedom organizations expressed “serious concerns” about the spying on journalists in Greece.
(Photo: dpa)
This raises new questions: How did the Greek secret service and the judiciary come to spy on a MEP and prominent opposition politician just because two foreign secret services want it? Did the Athens Ministry of Foreign Affairs know about this?
There are also many unanswered questions in the Koukakis case: why and on whose initiative was the financial journalist wiretapped? The organization United Reporters reports on a document which is said to show that the secret service EYP overheard Koukakis “for reasons of national security”.
His spying could have something to do with the fact that he was researching cases of corruption in politics and business and alleged cases of money laundering in the banking sector. His phone was infected with Predator spy software on July 21, 2021. The government denied any involvement at the time.
Koukakis requested information from the responsible supervisory authority ADAE whether he was being bugged. While he was still waiting for an answer, the government passed an amendment to the law that would prohibit the agency from providing information about wiretapping practices to those affected. In April 2022, in a letter to Prime Minister Mitsotakis, the International Press Institute (IPI) and other organizations committed to press freedom expressed “serious concerns” about the spying on journalists in Greece.
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The wiretapping allegations had been circulating for months. The government has long tried to ignore the issue. She rejected opposition calls for clarification.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis could make a statement on Monday
Since the revelations over the weekend, Mitsotakis should have realized that he simply cannot sit out the affair. Under massive pressure from the opposition parties, the government has finally agreed to a parliamentary investigation.
Also personally Mitsotakis gets more and more in need of explanation. Although he subordinated himself to the secret service, he obviously did not have it under control. When he appointed Kontoleon to head the service in 2019, there were doubts in the media about his suitability for the sensitive post.
The new secret service chief is Themistoklis Demiris, previously Secretary General in the Foreign Ministry. On Friday it was said that Demiris would inform the responsible parliamentary committee about the affair after the end of the summer break. But the opposition parties are demanding a quick clarification, and the pressure in the media is also growing. Now it is said in the Prime Minister’s environment that Mitsotakis will make a statement on Monday on television about the wiretapping affair.
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