Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis vigorously denied on Monday having wiretapped some of his ministers as claimed by a weekly, denouncing “an incredible lie” on the part of this media. “It’s an incredible lie. We have a publication revealing a series of people allegedly under surveillance, without the slightest proof that it was really happening”, the conservative Prime Minister was indignant in a television interview with the private Greek channel Antena1 .
33 personalities targeted by the Predator software
The Sunday newspaper Documento, close to the main opposition party Syriza, published a list of 33 public figures, including several ministers in office, journalists and businessmen, targeted by the spyware Predator. Among the victims are, according to this weekly, the former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the current Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Development, Labor and Tourism, the shipowner Vangelis Marinakis, owner of the football clubs Olympiakos and Nottingham Forest as well as several journalists.
“I never claimed (…) that there was no surveillance. It is very different to accuse the Prime Minister of having orchestrated this action”, underlined Kyriakos Mitsotakis qualifying the accusations of the newspaper of “shameful”, “slanderous” and unacceptable”.
A scandal that erupted in July
In the wake of the revelations of Documento On Sunday, the main left-wing opposition party Syriza of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (2015-2019), demanded that light be shed on this state affair “before the next elections” scheduled for the summer. 2023. The wiretapping scandal erupted in July when Nikos Androulakis, MEP and leader of the Greek socialist party Pasok Kinal, filed a complaint, claiming to have been the victim of an attempt to infect his phone with Predator.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis then admitted that Nikos Androulakis had been the subject of surveillance but assured that the Greek government had “neither purchased nor used the Predator spy software”. The head of Greek intelligence and a close adviser to the Prime Minister had resigned because of this scandal described as “Greek Watergate” by the media.