Europe

Greek wiretap cases turn up heat on Mitsotakis

The opposition leader’s phone was tapped. He wants the prime minister clear up his own role in the affair

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis denied this month that the wiretapping had been illegal but said it had been a mistake. Photograph: Julien Warnand/EPA

Eleni Varvitsioti in Athens
Thu Aug 25 2022 - 12:04

Nikos Androulakis wants answers. Since the Greek secret service admitted this month that it tapped his phone, the leader of the opposition PASOK party has insisted that one man — prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis — clear up his own role in the affair.

“Who requested and for what reason the wiretapping of a Greek MEP and candidate for the presidency of the third largest party at the time, in violation of the laws and constitution?” said Androulakis, who also sits in the European Parliament, in an interview.

“If it isn’t the prime minister who has the direct political responsibility, who controls the operation of the country’s secret services?”

The surveillance of Androulakis is becoming an acute political problem for Mitsotakis and his three-year-old government. Opposition MPs are trying to force increased scrutiny in parliament via a debate and an inquiry starting this week, hoping to dent the popularity of the centre-right prime minister.

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“After successfully weathering a number of highly demanding crises — from migration to Covid, to Greek-Turkish relations, to the energy crisis — [Mitsotakis] is now facing the one with the greatest potential for political destabilisation,” said George Pagoulatos, head of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy think-tank in Athens.

Mitsotakis denied in an address this month that the wiretapping had been illegal but said it had been a mistake. “I did not know about it, and obviously, I would have never allowed it,” he said. He blamed “dark forces” for trying to destabilise the country. A person close to Mitsotakis said this was an allusion to Russia after Greece’s opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. “It cannot be a mere coincidence that in the past few months we have seen attempts to destabilise a series of European countries ... in direct and indirect ways,” the person said.

Androulakis also discovered this year via checks carried out in his capacity as an MEP that his phone had been targeted with Predator spyware, which can access encrypted messages such as WhatsApp and activate a device’s camera and microphone when the target clicks on a link. While the Greek government denies purchasing or using Predator, the intelligence service — known as the EYP — started following Androulakis through his mobile phone provider at about the same time that an attempt to bug his phone with the software failed, according to analysis by Canada-based Citizen Lab, which specialises in monitoring spyware.

“How can one explain that five days after EYP started my wiretapping, an attempt to install the Predator spyware on my phone also took place?” said Androulakis.

Thanasis Koukakis, a journalist who has previously contributed to the Financial Times, also said he fell victim to an attack by Predator after he filed a complaint with the telecoms watchdog, ADAE, about his phone being monitored by EYP. Both men are taking legal action against the Greek state.

The wiretapping scandal has intensified scrutiny of the workings of the EYP, which Mitsotakis put directly under his control shortly after he became prime minister. He also raised eyebrows by appointing Panagiotis Kontoleon — the head of a private security company with no apparent experience in national security matters — to run the agency. His appointment was approved by parliament after the law outlining the qualifications for the position changed. Kontoleon resigned this month following the wiretapping revelations. Mitsotakis’s nephew, Grigoris Dimitriadis, has also resigned from his post as the prime minister’s general secretary, which gave him political oversight of the EYP. He has also denied any wrongdoing or any involvement in the wiretappings.

The intelligence service has been steadily increasing the number of legal surveillance orders, which reached 15,000 last year, more than 30 per cent higher than 2018, according to data from ADAE. By contrast in 2004 — when Greece was hosting the Olympics and was considered at risk of a terror attack — the number of surveillance orders was less than 500.

Before Mitsotakis took office surveillance also increased significantly in 2018 after the then leftist Syriza government cut the number of prosecutors required to approve a surveillance order from two to one. Critics say it undermined the independence and validity of the procedure. Pavlos Apostolidis, head of the EYP from 1999-2005, said the number of orders was surprising. “I cannot justify the substantial increase over the years,” he said.

Dimitris Papadimitriou, professor of political science at the UK’s University of Manchester, said the scandal could “dent the narrative that [Mitsotakis] has been carefully building in the past years [of] a politician with liberal views on the economy and social issues”.

The government rejects the idea that surveillance has increased excessively. A person under surveillance might have several phones and a single phone number may be subject to various renewed orders, said George Gerapetritis, minister of state in the prime minister’s office.

ADAE previously had to provide confirmation if a person suspected they had been under surveillance and if the secret service no longer deemed that person a national security threat. But after Koukakis’s complaint last year, the law was changed so the watchdog was no longer required to provide such confirmation.

The change was implemented despite opposition from ADAE’s chair, who said it might not be compatible with the constitution and the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. Gerapetritis defended the change, saying Greece had been “under great pressure” because of poor relations with Turkey and a number of spying cases. He said many other European countries do not reveal the names of those being monitored for national security reasons.

This week Mitsotakis’s nomination for a new head of the EYP was approved by a parliamentary committee, although all opposition parties abstained from the vote. Mitsotakis is also expected to try to widen the scope of the expected inquiry into wiretapping so that it also scrutinises the surveillance activities of previous governments. Apostolidis, the ex-head of the intelligence service, said it was important that the debate about EYP’s practices did “not result in undermining the service but will actually be an opportunity to improve”. — Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022