A High Court prosecutor made an unannounced inspection at Greece’s national intelligence agency (EYP) late last week accompanied by two IT expects appointed from a relevant Athens first instance courts’ catalogue, a development linked to an ongoing judicial investigation into a wire-tapping furor involving prominent individuals in the country.
One of the more high-profile EYP phone taps came against current PASOK party president Nikos Androulakis, during a period before he vied for the leadership of the socialist party and when he was still a MEP serving in the European Parliament. Androulakis has sharply criticized the Mitsotakis government as behind the order to commence the wire-tapping against him.
The on-site inspection by deputy chief prosecutor Achilleas Zisis, who’s been assigned the explosive case by top Supreme Court Prosecutor Georgia Aidilini, focused on the agency’s files, and specifically to determine whether the latter agency also used the notorious and now illegal spyware Predator to eavesdrop on dozens of individuals. Many of the latter have charged that they were sent a deceptive SMS, containing the spyware, which aimed to dupe them into installing the latter on their mobile phones.
Ascertaining whether EYP attempted to eavesdrop in this manner on individuals comprising the so-called “Predator list” or “Menoudakos list” – named after the president of Greece’s independent Data Protection Authority (DPA or ADAE), Konstantinos Menoudakos, which also investigated the case – is now apparently a key factor in what’s been called Greece’s worst wire-tapping incident in recent memory.
DPA’s own investigation reportedly turned up 92 instances of a spyware-infected SMS – Predator and other malicious software – being sent to individuals’ mobile phones.
EYP had previously received in-house approval by prosecutors serving in its headquarters to engage in a legal wire-tap against Androulakis and a handful of other individuals. To date, no reasoning has been publicly given for these wire-taps.
