PASOK leader Androulakis says PM knows why he was spied on
PASOK-KINAl leader Nikos Androulakis said on Thursday that the Greek prime minister’s admission during a television debate that he does not constitute a threat to the country’s security indicates that he knows the real reason he was wiretapped by intelligence agency EYP.
“The prime minister said yesterday for the first time that he knows the reason for my surveillance, since it was not done for reasons of national security,” Androulakis told Skai radio, discussing Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ statement at Wednesday’s debate.
It also means, he continued, that judicial authorities investigating the wiretapping scandal must order former EYP chief Panagiotis Kontoleon and EYP prosecutor Vasiliki Vlachou (who signed off on the surveillance on grounds of “national security”) to testify as to why he was targeted.
Asked at the TV debate about the bugging of Androulakis’ phone, Mitsotakis said: “Mr. Androulakis poses absolutely no risk to the country’s national security and should never have been put under surveillance,” adding that the wiretapping scandal created “a shadow over our government, I have no doubt about it, and it should not have occurred.”
The surveillance scandal first emerged on August 4, 2022, when Kontoleon told a parliamentary committee that the intelligence agency had been spying on financial journalist Thanasis Koukakis. This was followed on Aug. 8, by Mitsotakis’ admission that Androulakis was also wiretapped for reasons of national security, but denied any knowledge of the operation.
Since then, it has emerged that numerous prominent journalists, politicians, the head of the armed forces and other citizens where being spied on by either EYP, or through a powerful illegal spyware called Predator.
Greece is scheduled to hold general elections on May 21.
