A high court investigation into the explosive wire-tapping scandal that gripped Greece after September 2021 has been shelved by a relevant Supreme Court deputy chief prosecutor – as least the portion involving the country’s National Intelligence Service (EYP) – but instead points to private firms.
According to a lengthy report submitted by Deputy Chief Prosecutor Achilleas Zisis to his superior, Chief Prosecutor Georgia Adelini, no evidence emerged from the probe to connect the use of the spyware Predator with the specific intelligence service. Adelini had ordered a preliminary and urgent judicial probe into the very prominent case.
An announcement on Tuesday, issued by by Adelini’s office, states that the latter concurs with the assessments of her colleague, with the high court prosecutor’s office pointing instead to “sufficient signs” of wrongdoing against a handful of private companies or firms involved with the notorious spyware, tailor-made to target cell phone communications.
The high court prosecutor’s report – conducted over two years and nine months – cites indications of wrongdoing, as it states, by the “true owners” of companies “…who, through one way or another, are involved in a case dealing with the offense of breach of privacy of communications, which however, at the time it (offense) was committed, was a misdemeanor, and therefore, the more lenient provision applies, thus the case must be directly referred to a court hearing.”
