Surveillance of opposition leader was ‘unacceptable’, says Greek PM

ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged on Monday that the intelligence service´s surveillance of the head of the socialist opposition´s mobile phone was "politically unacceptable".

Mitsotakis was speaking in a televised address three days after two key members of his conservative government resigned over the affair. The scandal reignited on July 26 when Nikos Androulakis, leader of the opposition Socialists, told journalists about the attempted surveillance via spyware Predator, having filed a legal complaint.

Already this year, two Greek journalists have launched legal action saying they have been victims of similar attacks on their phones. "A few days ago, I was informed that in September 2021, while he was already a European deputy, the national intelligence service (EYP) had set up a legal connection with the mobile phone of Nikos Androulakis," said Mitsotakis.

"It was a mistake," he added, while insisting on the fact that he had not known about it until very recently. Mitsotakis raised eyebrows when in July 2019 one of his first acts on assuming power was to attach the national intelligence service to his office.

On Monday, he described the decision by the EYP, Greece´s intelligence service, to launch the surveillance as "politically unacceptable" and referred to "endemic faults" in the agency. On Friday, the head of the EYP, Panagiotis Kontoleon, and the secretary general of the prime minister´s office, Grigoris Dimitriadis -- Mitsotakis´s nephew -- both resigned over the affair.

Dimitriadis had been named by the investigative website Reporters United as being linked to the alleged spying scandals involving both Androulakis and Greek financial journalist Thanasis Koukakis.

Another investigative website Inside story has recently published an inquiry on the presence of "an Israeli company that produces and uses Predator and has offices in Greece". Dimitriadis on Friday threatened to sue Reporters United and leftist daily Efsyn unless they withdraw a story on the case. Koukakis was also warned to refrain from retweeting the story. Androulakis on Friday called for a special parliamentary investigation into the affair.