The scandal of the bugging the cellphones of politicians, journalists and senior officials. The weekly Documento anticipates the publication, tomorrow, of a new list of personalities whose cell phones would have been infected with Predator software e openly accuses the premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis of having managed the operation: the list would include, among others, the former police chief Michalis Karamalakis and the prosecutor in charge of supervising the EYP secret services, Vasiliki Vlachou.
Syriza’s opposition, commenting on the advances, attacks: «Prime Minister Mitsotakis is now accused of having organized and executed an unprecedented constitutional deviationIf he doesn’t give convincing answers, he should resign», writes the party led by former premier Alexis Tsipras in a statement.
The Greek media have been launching since the beginning of November revelations-bomb on the scandal, and more and more are pointing the finger at the Conservative prime minister, who has so far denied any involvement. The fuse of what was soon renamed il “watergate greco” – or ‘Predatorgate’ – ignited last July, when the secretary of the socialist party of Pasok and MEP Nikos Androulakis denounced that he had been intercepted by the Greek secret services in the autumn of 2021 – while he was about to win the congress of the his party – and then suffered an attempted hacking of his mobile phone, by unknown persons, with the Predator spyware.
The investigative weekly Documento, reconstructing the story, wrote that espionage started from a single operational center of the Serviceswhich sent Predator victims a message that infected phones with spyware.
Among the people spied onDocument had even listed Kostis Hatzidakis, current Minister of Labor eletto con Nea Dimokratia, as well as the director of the main Greek newspaper ‘Kathimerini’Alexis Papachelas. According to other media, the mobile phone of the publishing magnate and owner of the Olympiakos football team, Giannis Marinakis, considered close to the Mitsotakis family, was also intercepted.
The premier, who in 2019 took over the direct management of the Secret Services by law, denies any connection between Predator and the government, and has promised to shed light on the matter, but nervousness is growing within his own party. “I have complete faith in the commitment undertaken by Mitsotakis to shed full clarity on the case” commented in recent days the Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, himself a victim of Predator according to what was revealed by the newspaper To Bima, and today considered one of the the prime minister’s main rivals for the leadership of the Nea Dimokratia party.
The scandal then attracted international attention: the Reporters Without Borders observatory called for “serious investigations” into the interceptions which would involve, among others, at least 13 journalists, while the Commission of the European Parliament Pega, charged with investigating the use of spyware, called for “complete clarity” before the legislative elections expected in Greece between spring and summer of 2023.