
The leader of the main Greek opposition party, the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), Alexis Tsipras, on Monday called on the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to give explanations on the allegations about the possible 33 cases of espionage with Predator software attributed to the Intelligence Agency (EYP).
«Were the 33 targets of the Predator malware included in a list of the EYP?», Tsipras has raised in a parliamentary appearance. «In a democratic state it is unthinkable that political opponents and even their closest collaborators, ministers and former prime ministers are monitored with malware,» he has pointed out.
Mitsotakis did not respond in Parliament, but in an interview on Greek ANT1 television in which he called the accusations published by the newspaper ‘Documento’ «unbelievable lies».
«It is an unbelievable lie. We have a publication that presents a series of names that were allegedly spied on without any proof whatsoever that it actually happened and without any personal relationship with me,» Mitsotakis has stated.
«Is there a single Greek who believes that in these three and a half years in my free time I was engaged in spying on the foreign minister, the finance minister or the wives of these ministers?» he has posed. «I trust in Justice, in the Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court, to clear it up,» he has pointed out, while describing the newspaper’s editor, Kostas Vaxevanis, as a «national danger».
In fact, he assured that «behind Vaxevanis hides Mr. Tsipras» and warned of a «strategy to sink us in the mire of the debate».
ESPIONAGE TO POLITICIANS, BUSINESSMEN AND JOURNALISTS The Israeli espionage program would have been installed on the phones of 33 politicians – and family members -, businessmen and journalists, as revealed by the newspaper ‘Documento’.
The list includes Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, former conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, former socialist, conservative and SYRIZA ministers and the executive director of the newspaper ‘Kathimerini’, Alexis Papachelas. ‘Document’ directly links Mitsotakis to this espionage and even refers to the «Mitsotakis system» of espionage.
The government has advocated to «thoroughly» investigate these allegations, although it has warned that «there is a lot of narrative, but evidence is lacking,» in the words of government spokesman Dimitris Oikonomu.
The vast majority of those listed have stated that they were not aware of any kind of extraordinary situation concerning their cell phones.
Just this Monday the director of ‘Document’, Kostas Vaxevanis, presented the documentation supporting the news to the Greek Supreme Court at the request of the court’s prosecutor, Isidoros Dogiakos.
This is the second wave of an eavesdropping scandal that broke out in July, when the leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Party (PASOK), Nikos Androulakis, complained to the Supreme Court of being spied on his cell phone with Predator software discovered by the security service of the European Parliament.