A former Greek prime minister and several ministers still in office are among the figures who had been illegally wiretapped, according to information published on Saturday by the left-wing weekly Documento on this affair which has been stirring Greece for months.
According Documentoformer Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the current Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Development, Labor and Tourism are among the victims, as well as the shipowner Vangelis Marinakis, owner of the football clubs Olympiakos and Nottingham Forest.
The weekly, which has links with the left-wing opposition party Syriza, claims to have this information “of two people who have a key role in monitoring“.
According to him, the malware was also used to infect the phones of not only those targeted but also some of their relatives.
On Friday, the European Parliament called on Greece to carry out an investigation “urgent and thoroughon this case of illegal tapping which has poisoned the political climate of the country in recent months.
Some of those targeted are influential members of the ruling conservative New Democracy party, and potential rivals for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The affair broke out in July when Nikos Androulakis, MEP and leader of the Greek Socialist Party, filed a complaint saying that there had been several attempts to tap his phone using the Predator spyware.
Two journalists and another prominent opposition politician later revealed that they had also been victims of surveillance by the Greek secret services.
Read alsoEavesdropping: European Parliament calls on Greece for ‘urgent’ investigation
The scandal led in August to the resignation of the head of the secret service and that of a nephew and adviser to the prime minister. The government acknowledged the surveillance of Nikos Androulakis, without giving reasons, but denied the use of illegal software.