The head of Greece’s intelligence services and the secretary general of the prime minister’s office have resigned following allegations of the use of surveillance software against a journalist and the leader of an opposition party.
National Intelligence Service director Panagiotis Kontoleon and Grigoris Dimitriadis, secretary general of the prime minister’s office, tendered their resignations on Friday, the prime minister’s office said. Both were accepted.
Kontoleon resigned “as a result of improper actions found in the judicial oversight process”, the Prime Minister’s Office said, without specifying which procedures were improperly followed or who could have been the targets of the judicial oversight. Under Greek law, a prosecutor is required to sign any surveillance.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not give a reason for Dimitriadis’ resignation. A government official said it was “linked to the toxic climate that has developed around him. In no way does it have anything to do with Predator (spyware), to which neither he nor the government are in any way connected, as has been categorically stated”. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the reasons for the resignation had not been announced.
Last week, the leader of the socialist opposition PASOK party in Greece, Nikos Androulakis, filed a complaint with the country’s Supreme Court, claiming there had been an attempt to bug his mobile phone with the spyware Predator.
Androulakis, who is also a member of the European Parliament, said he became aware of the attempt after being informed by the European Parliament’s cybersecurity service a few days before filing his complaint on July 26.
“Revealing who is behind these unhealthy practices and for whom they act is not a personal matter. It is my democratic duty,” Androulakis said at the time.
In April, Greek financial journalist Thanassis Koukakis said he was told by digital rights group Citizen Lab that his phone had been the target of surveillance by Predator software from July to September 2021. investigation (… ) (to) determine who orchestrated this surveillance and hold them to account”.
euronews Gt