Greece’s conservative government was shaken by a long-running surveillance scandal on Friday when its intelligence chief and a close aide of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis resigned in the space of an hour. Mitsotakis’ office said in a statement that Panagiotis Kontolian offered his resignation due to management “errors” during his time in the role.
The announcement that Kontolian had resigned as head of the national intelligence service EYP came less than an hour after the Secretary General of the Prime Minister’s Office, Grigoris Dimitridis, also stepped down.
The resignations came a week after the country’s socialist opposition leader Nikos Androlakis filed a complaint with the Supreme Court over an “attempt” to spy on his mobile phone. Cruel Malware.
Two Greek journalists have also taken legal action after claiming to be victims of this year’s surveillance,
Androlakis on Friday called for a special inquiry by parliament into the incident.
“I never thought that the Greek government would spy on me using the worst practices,” he said.
The government has consistently denied any state involvement, saying it has not purchased that type of software, but the rows have sparked an outcry in the country.
Government spokesman Yiannis Iconomo has said it was “plausible” that individuals used hunters to spy and that the whole of Europe faced surveillance threats.
In November, Greek Minister of State George Gerapetritis insisted to AFP that there is “no surveillance of journalists in Greece” by the state.
“Greece upholds the values of a fully democratic society and the rule of law, in particular pluralism and freedom of the press,” Gerapetritis said.
As such, he argued that there is “no need for further action” to verify the alleged surveillance of investigative journalist Stavros Malychudis.
Kontolian, who was appointed EYP chief after Mitsotakis’s conservative party came to power in 2019, implied that journalists were targeted at the behest of foreign intelligence services.
Investigative websites Reporters United and Inside Story have accused Mitsotakis’s nephew Dimitriadis of alleged spying scandals involving Androlakis and Greek financial journalist Thanasis Koukakis.
Dimitridis on Friday threatened to sue Reporters United and left-wing daily Fsin unless they withdrew a story on the case. The Koukakis was also warned to refrain from retweeting the story.
In his first acts of assuming power in 2019, Mitsotakis raised eyebrows by linking the National Intelligence Service to his office.
The main opposition party, the leftist Siriza, called the case “a huge scam”. Its leader, former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, said that Dimitridis’ resignation was “an admission of guilt” and that Mitsotakis himself had taken some responsibility.
“Mr Mitsotakis should give an explanation to the Greek people about his Watergate,” said Tsipras.
A dystopian, Orwellian reality
Experts note that the hunter, originally developed in North Macedonia and later in Israel, could reach both messages and conversations.
“A few days ago I was informed by the European Parliament that there was an attempt to spoof my mobile phone with Predator surveillance software,” Androlakis told the media as he left a court in Athens on 26 July.
“It is not an individual matter but a democratic duty to find out who is behind these harmful practices,” he said.
The European Parliament established a special service for MEPs to check their phones for illegal surveillance software after they were hacked using spyware similar to the Predator called Pegasus.
Androulakis used the service for “precautionary check of your phone on June 28, 2022”.
“From the first investigation, a suspicious link related to predator surveillance equipment was detected,” his PASOK party said in a statement.
Software can infiltrate mobile phones to extract data or activate cameras or microphones to spy on their owners.
“Predator is one of the most expensive spyware and out of reach of individuals,” cyber security expert Anastasios Arampatzis told AFP. Only a state would need its sophisticated security features.
“The security and safety of one’s private life should be guaranteed by any democratic regime. If a state spies its citizens, we are heading towards a dystopian, Orwellian reality.”
Spain’s intelligence chief was sacked earlier this year after it emerged that top politicians, including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Catalan separatists, had been targeted by phone hacking.