European committee says Greek premier is responsible in surveillance scandal

The European Parliament's PEGA Committee, which is investigating the use of spyware in its member countries, said Tuesday that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is responsible for the surveillance scandal that rocked the country's political scene last summer.

Asked whether she sees a connection to the use of Predator spyware for surveillance of the country's prominent politicians, journalists and other public figures, the committee's rapporteur, Sophie In't Veldt, said: "What we know for sure is that as soon as his government took over, the law was changed and the EYP (Greece's National Intelligence Service) came under the direct responsibility of the prime minister."

"Either he knew, then we have a very serious problem, or he didn't know when he should have known, which is also a serious problem," she added.

Veldt said some evidence indicates that the Israeli-made Predator spyware was exported from the Greek Cypriot administration to Sudan, where two parties are at war, through a license issued by Greece.

The European Commission has an obligation to investigate and to persist in obtaining all information, she added.

SURVEILLANCE SCANDAL

On Aug. 8, 2022, Mitsotakis acknowledged that opposition politician Nikos Androulakis was wiretapped by Greece's intelligence agency but denied knowledge of the operation.

The scandal first emerged on Aug. 4, when Panagiotis Kontoleon, then-head of the EYP, told a parliamentary committee that the intelligence agency had been spying on financial journalist Thanasis Koukakis.

On Aug. 5, Kontoleon, along with the general secretary of the prime minister's office, Grigoris Dimitriadis, resigned.