Phone spyware scandal deepens in Greece as four appear in court

It has become known as Greece's Watergate: spyware software and Greek intelligence targeted the mobile phones of government ministers, senior military officers, judges and journalists.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called it a scandal, but no government officials have been charged in court and critics accuse the government of trying to cover up the truth.

Instead, a low-ranking judge will on Wednesday hear the case against two Israelis and two Greeks, allegedly involved with marketing spy software known as Predator.

In the summer of 2022, the current head of socialist party Pasok, Nikos Androulakis - then an MEP - was informed by the EU Parliament's IT experts that he had received a malicious text message from an unknown sender, containing spy software.

This Predator spyware, which is marketed by the Athens-based Israeli company Intellexa, can get access to a device's messages, camera, and microphone – turning a person's phone against them.

Things escalated after Androulakis also discovered that he had been tracked for "national security reasons" by Greece's National Intelligence Service (EYP).

Just a month after taking office in the summer of 2019, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis had placed EYP directly under his supervision.

His conservative government was suddenly at the heart of the crisis. The head of EYP, Panagiotis Kontoleon, resigned, as did the prime minister's top aide and nephew, Grigoris Dimitriadis, who was the liaison between EYP and the PM's office.

Predator had been used in attempts to entrap at least 87 people, according to the Hellenic Data Protection Authority. Twenty seven of those put under surveillance were simultaneously monitored by EYP, including serving ministers and senior military officers.

Despite criticism that the common targets by EYP and Predator implied a common strategy of surveillance, the government insisted that this was a coincidence and that no law enforcement agency had ever used Predator, the use of which was illegal in Greece at that time. A new law passed in 2022 has since legalised state security use of surveillance software under strict conditions.

But the government did not answer why the secret services had spied on the Chief of National Defence General Staff, Lieutenant General Konstantinos Floros, and Kostis Hatzidakis, then cabinet member and today vice president of the government.

In July 2024 a report by the Greek Supreme Court, seen by the BBC, concluded there was "clearly no connection" between Predator and government officials.

"There is a prosecutor's report and the answers are clear. Justice has spoken. There is no doubt in what it said", government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis told reporters.

The BBC has repeatedly contacted Mr Marinakis for comment on this, but at time of publication has not received a response.

The four private individuals on trial in Athens on Wednesday are all facing misdemeanor charges - allegedly connected with the marketing of Predator. Two of the accused are said to have ties with state officials, but it was never seriously investigated, opposition and watchdogs said.

"What began as a political scandal has now evolved into an institutional scandal, tainting both the judiciary and the independent authorities," says Thanasis Koukakis, a financial reporter who investigates corruption, and among the targets of dual surveillance – both by Predator and the secret services "for national security reasons".

Eliza Trintafyllou, journalist for Inside Story, has reported on the scandal since its very beginning.

"If someone has not followed the wiretapping scandal, they would think that four individuals, on their own initiative and for their own personal reasons, tapped the phones of 87 people in Greece, using advanced spyware that is otherwise marketed exclusively to state intelligence services and law enforcement authorities worldwide."

"No serving minister, judge, or military officer filed a complaint about being targeted with Predator so far. Nor were any of them called to testify as a witness," she said.

After the scandal broke out, the Greek government introduced a new law on the confidentiality of communications.

There are now more safeguards for law enforcement authorities, but at the same time the new legislation has been criticised because it effectively deprives citizens of the right to learn if they had previously been under surveillance.

In addition, the Greek government received criticism for its lack of willingness to find out who was spying on its ministers and members of the army - criticism that only mounted after authorities raided the offices of Intellexa in Athens, months after the wiretapping scandal broke out. They left empty handed.

Christos Rammos, a former senior judge and president of the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE) at the time the scandal broke out was a key figure in uncovering the facts behind the wiretapping. It was not an easy task and faced many obstacles on the way.

"In Greece the political system cannot tolerate independent authorities, the so-called checks and balances on power. The wiretapping affair was a traumatic experience for our democracy," Rammos told the BBC. "I was subjected to personal attacks. It was an open war."

The wiretapping scandal received international attention and scrutiny since one of the first victims, Nikos Androulakis, was an MEP. The European Parliament set up a special Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (PEGA).

Its Rapporteur, former MEP Sophie in 't Veld, told the BBC that the Greek government had made "every possible attempt to conceal the truth. They have, at every turn, refused cooperation."

"The whole spyware thing is not something that you can see in isolation. It's not taking place in a vacuum. It's used to silence critical voices. It's used to stifle scrutiny. But, the damage has been done; it's had a chilling effect.

"I was just now coming back from a coffee with a friend of mine who was also looking into spyware and she said, 'I cannot be sure that my phone is safe from the Greek government' - quite literally.'"