LEFT lawmakers in Greece have labelled the outcome of a two-year spyware probe as a “sham” and a cover-up.
The investigation has cleared the country’s security agencies of involvement in an international spyware scandal that triggered sanctions by the United States earlier this year.
Supreme Court prosecutor Georgia Adilini said that she found no evidence linking Greece’s National Intelligence Service, the police force or its anti-terrorism division to the use of Predator spyware, which opposition groups alleged was used against some government critics.
The spyware targeted dozens of prominent individuals in Greece including Nikos Androulakis, the current leader of the Socialist Party, the third largest in parliament.
Left-wing lawmakers accused the ruling conservatives of engineering a cover-up.
Speaking in parliament, Mr Androulakis called the investigation a “sham” and demanded that lawmakers be shown full conclusions of the probe, detailed in a 300-page report that has not been made public.
“It’s a shameful practice to sell this type of software to illiberal regimes, knowing that they are most likely to be used against human rights (activists), against political opponents, and endangering the lives of thousands of people in third world countries,” Mr Androulakis said.
In March, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against two individuals and companies based in Greece, Ireland, Hungary and North Macedonia, all connected to software developers called the Intellexa consortium.
The sanctions announcement said they were linked to the spyware that was being sold to authoritarian regimes around the world and being used to target US citizens.
The government said that its opponents had baselessly conflated the use of spyware with legally authorised wiretaps carried out by Greece’s National Intelligence Service.
Makis Voridis, a minister of state for the government, said: “While you were hurling slander, lies and falsehoods at us — with nothing based on facts or the law — we were waiting for justice. And today, that day arrived.”
