ATHENS — During a tense and highly confidential meeting in the Senate chamber of the Greek parliament, the prime minister’s smooth, hand-picked spy politely dodged questions from opposition lawmakers. They wanted to know if he had been overseeing a rival politician and financial journalist investigating powerful business interests close to the prime minister.
But the questions usually didn’t go anywhere. The committee’s chairman, a political ally of the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, discouraged follow-up questions, kept time to a minimum and ensured that the July 29 meeting, whose contents are still protected, was a dud.
But less than a week later, allegations of government espionage exploded into a sprawling scandal that is now shaking. the top of the Greek government, raising fears of widespread surveillance across Europe, potentially sparking another crack in Europe’s united front against Russia over its war in Ukraine.
Greece today is awash with blackmail, Watergate and a secret police state that uses a ubiquitous legal surveillance program with more than 15,000 orders last year alone to initiate, extend or shut down wiretaps in this country of 10.5 million people. Predator, a malicious spyware used to invade mobile phones, has become part of the Greek vocabulary.
Mr Mitsotakis, a conservative who took personal control of the intelligence portfolio in 2019 and whose own father was weakened by charges of political espionage when he himself was prime minister some 30 years ago, is in full damage control mode.
He fired his loyal spy chief, Panagiotis Kontoleon, accepted the resignation of government secretary general Grigoris Dimitriadis — who is also his cousin — and delivered a nationally televised speech this week filled with denials and proposals for reform of the spy agency, including adding from a layer of inquest into what many critics have called an internal stamp before the wiretapping permission.
“I knew nothing about it and of course I would never have allowed it,” Mr Mitsotakis said of spying on his political rival, although the country’s intelligence agency is under his oversight.
There is growing concern that Europe, so proud of its privacy protections and rule of law, is teeming with listening devices and espionage at a time when its democracies are under threat from Russian aggression. So much so that the European Union regularly checks devices.
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Spyware investigations should now include “a check of the phones of all politicians and top officials,” Sophie in ‘t Veld, the chair of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Spyware, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “To get a full picture of government espionage activities.”
Greece has now vaulted to the top of the list of concerns. Allies of Mr Mitsotakis, a staunch defender of Ukraine, have argued that the scandal threatens not only Greek stability but also the common cause against Russia.
“If I were Mr Putin, I would be very happy if the governments that were so against Russia fell,” said Adonis Georgiadis, a minister and vice president of Mr Mitsotakis’s New Democracy party. While insisting that he did not blame Russia for the hacking, he added that Russia had previously exerted influence in Greece: “So if they have done it in the past. Why not do it now?”
Turkey too, he said, “could be behind all this”.
In his speech, Mr Mitsotakis also spoke cryptically about the possibility of “dark forces outside Greece” working “to destabilize the country”.
Opponents say the government’s insinuations amount to a desperate smokescreen to avoid the obvious problem – that it was caught spying on its own citizens and political rivals.
“It was clear that the government was lying,” said George Katrougalos, the former Greek foreign minister of the main opposition party Syriza, who attended the confidential meeting on July 29, the contents of which he said he could not release. Opposition party officials have interpreted the intelligence chief’s non-denials about spying on journalists, and even a 12-year-old migrant child, as confirmation that they had done so. And they have used the revelations of “legal” espionage to cast doubt on the government’s categorical denials of being behind the Predator hacks.
The extent of state surveillance would never have come to light if Nikos Androulakis, leader of Greece’s third-largest political party, center-left Pasok-Kinal, had not upgraded to a new iPhone.
In June, an assistant suggested he hand over his old phone to the new spyware detection lab in Brussels near the European Parliament, of which he is also a member. Technicians discovered that he was the target of a cyberattack on September 21, 2021, with the malware Predator, which is manufactured by Cytrox, a technology company operating out of Greece, and if installed via a phishing scam, it could destroy an entire mobile phone. taking over.
“It can watch, it can record,” said Dimitrios Mantzos, the spokesman for the Pasok party, who said the culprit must be “household” because Greek fingerprints were everywhere. “It’s too Greek for us to understand, but it’s all Greek.”
The party leader was not the only target.
Thanasis Koukakis, an investigative journalist who broke news in 2019 about: Greece’s major banks noticed problems with its new iPhone in June 2020. He asked a source if it was possible that he was under surveillance.
The source told him he was. He said he was shown transcripts of his conversations, including one while waiting for his daughter outside her school, complete with notes describing garbled sentences.
He complained to the country’s communications and privacy watchdog. Before he could get an answer, the government amended a law in March 2021, allowing it to withhold information from people under investigation on matters of national security. The privacy watchdog told him he had no information on his phone.
Later, an investigation by Reporters United, which included state intelligence documents and the district attorney’s orders, found that the state surveillance was ended the same day he filed his complaint.
It also turned out that Mr. Koukakis was infected with Predator, which he only discovered in March this year, after Citizen Lab, the world’s foremost experts on spyware, tested his device. The government denied having anything to do with it.
It wasn’t until Wednesday that he finally got a call from a prosecutor of the country’s highest court to set up an appointment about his complaint.
“The disclosure of the Androulakis case is a blessing for me,” said Mr. Koukakis, who is convinced that Mr. Mitsotakis knew all about surveillance in the current scandal.
Mr Androulakis also filed legal complaints and asked the Greek watchdog to investigate the violation of his privacy.
In his case, the watchdog was able to confirm to Mr Androulakis’ telephone provider in early August that the intelligence agency had tapped his phone.
Giorgos Gerapetritis, one of Mr. Mitsotakis, said he then tried to arrange a meeting between Mr. Androulakis and the intelligence chief so that the top spy could explain to him and him alone, as permitted by law, why he was under surveillance.
But he said he never heard anything again.
Instead, Androulakis says he wants the case to be heard by the judiciary and sent before Parliament’s ethics committee and the Greek privacy watchdog.
The whole affair has caused political upheaval in Greece, with parliamentary elections approaching next summer.
Mr. Georgiadis acknowledged that any evidence that Mr Mitsotakis was aware of the surveillance “would be very bad. But he didn’t know.” He blamed what he called the fired spy chief’s “political miscarriage” but also warned that the scandal could open the door to an opposition more favorable to Russia.
But Mr. Androulakis, like many Greeks, is convinced that the enemy is within.
“I never expected the Greek government to put me under surveillance,” he said, “using the most shady practices.”