Local businessman Yannis Lavranos, whose companies have undertaken the installation of a new communications system for Greek police and the maintenance of the National Intelligence Agency’s wiretapping system, is expected to be summoned in the next few days to testify as a suspect in an explosive wire-tapping scandal that first emerged in the second half of 2022.
Lavranos will appear before deputy Supreme Court chief prosecutor Achilleas Zisis, who has been assigned the preliminary criminal investigation into the affair.
Lavranos, who according to media reports is a personal friend of Grigoris Dimitriadis, the prime minister’s former chief of staff, is being probed in relation to his possible involvement in the use of the illegal spyware Predator. The latter has emerged from a series of testimonies of third parties, through interlocking corporate ties, and from contacts between Israeli and Greek IT entrepreneurs regarding the spyware.
Additionally, the investigation is also scrutinizing the electronic evidence left behind by the Predator spyware in the attempt to steal personal data from 95 mobile phone users.
