Greece in a pickle over Predator use, seeks US 'judicial cooperation'

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
21 Dec 2022 00:06

The scandal was unveiled on July 26, 2022, when Nikos Androulakis, the president of PASOK, filed a complaint to the Supreme Court for a personal data breach.

Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis

Lawyers in Greece working on a wire-tapping probe have called on the United States on Tuesday to request "judicial cooperation" against the Greek government.

According to a legal source close to the matter, the request was made because "suspicious SMS (text messages on mobile phones of people surveilled) are suspected to have been sent from the United States."

The scandal was unveiled on July 26, 2022, when Nikos Androulakis, the president of PASOK, filed a complaint to the Supreme Court for a personal data breach.

Androulakis said he had been targeted by the Predator spyware as it attempted to tap into his mobile phone.

Reports later emerged that Androulakos had been under state surveillance from the Greek intelligence services before he assumed the leadership of the Pasok party.

Two Greek journalists subsequently said they had been under state surveillance.

In November, the Greek government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis admitted that it carried out "legal" surveillance activities by the intel services against journalists and politicians but refused to disclose the reasons under the guise of "national security".

However, the government rebuked allegations of using illegal surveillance software to spy on their targets.

The judicial investigation still has not clarified any matter related to the probe.

The government has refuted claims from other prominent journalists and politicians that they were being spied on by the government, including former premier Antonis Samaras, several serving cabinet ministers, military chiefs, media owners, and journalists.

Meanwhile in #Greece, the son of the Chief Areopagite prosecutor in charge of the illegal wiretapping scandal works as a consultant in Mitsotakis’ transport & infrastructure ministry #GreekWatergate #Corruption #predator https://t.co/OGyJmPteOa
— Theodore Koulouris (@theokoulouris) December 19, 2022

On December 17, local media reported that Greek police raided the Athens office of an Israeli company behind the Predator spyware, as investigations into a wiretapping scandal that has rocked the country in recent months continue.

The offices of Intellexa, the spyware company that supplies Predator, were raided on Tuesday evening, along with the offices of five other companies. The homes of the company executives were also targeted.

The Predator spyware is a less expensive alternative to the more well-known Pegasus spyware from the NSO Group, also an Israeli company, and it can similarly infiltrate smartphones, steal data, and turn them into listening and recording devices.

However, as the NSO Group is blacklisted for its role in assisting authoritarian regimes, Intellexa, founded by former Israeli military intelligence general Tal Dilian, is gaining popularity, according to a New York Times investigation published last week.

“Predator was found to have been used in another dozen countries since 2021, illustrating the continued demand among governments and the lack of robust international efforts to limit the use of such tools,” according to the Times investigation.

Greece granted Intellexa licenses to export its Predator spyware to Madagascar, and Intellexa pitched its spyware to Ukraine, which declined the offer, according to the investigation.