Thursday, March 28

The Greek prime minister will investigate the scandal of the listening to the socialist leader Nikos Androulakis


The wiretapping of the Greek National Intelligence Service for three months, from September 2021, to the cell phone of Nikos Androulakis, a Socialist MEP, have caused a huge scandal in the country. The wiretaps were legal following the 2018 law (that is, presented and voted for by the radicals in the previous government) since they had the legal approval of the competent prosecutor. And after three months, and when Androulakis had already been elected a few days before the leader of the Greek socialist party (which is still called the Movement for Change, KYNAL) it was interrupted.

Mitsotakis, who claims not to have known anything about the matter until a few days ago and has already apologized directly to Androulakis, has made it clear that although legal, this listening is “politically unacceptable” and “should not have happened”, now causing cracks in the public trust in National Security Services. He insisted that he was not aware of these wiretaps “and he would never have allowed them.” For this reason, he accepted the resignation of the director of said Services, Panayotis Kondoléon, and of the political leader, the Secretary General of the Government, Grigoris Dimitriadis, until now not only his nephew, but his right-hand man.

Measures to ensure the transparency of intelligence

The Conservative Prime Minister has made it clear that the National Intelligence Service’s contribution is valuable in strengthening Greece’s position, but it needs to improve its operational efficiency and the framework of its control and supervision needs to be reassessed. Therefore, its new director is Themistoklis Demiris, until now Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and one of the most experienced diplomats in the country.

The Government has also decided to immediately launch a commission of inquiry, accept any initiative that improves the practices of the intelligence services. Four changes have already been designed: greater parliamentary supervision through the Institutions and Transparency Committee, a greater role for the National Security Council, shielding the framework for listening to political figures, and changes in the structure of the intelligence services and their resources.

He has also insisted that “there are many enemies of the country on the prowl who want a weak intelligence service”, insisting that “we live in a dangerous world”, but the Greek state is democratic and has the obligation to preserve the balance between the security of the country and its citizens and the protection of the fundamental principles that protect the privacy of communications.

The case was uncovered when the spied person explained that the European Parliament’s cybersecurity services detected an attempted cyberattack on the Predator system of his mobile

it all started two weeks ago, when Androulakis announced that the European Parliament’s cybersecurity services had detected a cyberattack attempt by the Predator system on his mobile phone last year. And the wiretapping of the Greek intelligence services was also discovered, and the details are beginning to be known.

A meeting of the Parliament’s Institutions and Transparency Committee, behind closed doors, on July 29, led Kondoleon to admit that his services had also spied on financial journalist Thanasis Koukakis following the request of the intelligence services of another foreign country. And it so happens that Reporters United published that there is a relationship between Mitsotakis’s nephew and a company that sells the Predator system.

The opposition, outraged, demands early elections

The truth is that the opposition is outraged, not only on the part of Androulakis and the socialists, but also on the part of the Syriza radicals who demand, once again, the government resignation and early elections. And now it is recalled how, although wiretapping is allowed under the 2018 law, an amendment by the current government presented in March 2021 prevents the Independent Authority on the Privacy of Communications (ADAE) from notifying citizens that they were being heard.

Given what happened, Parliament will bring forward the opening of its session to the next day on the 22nd to address the espionage case.


www.abc.es

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