Election office break-in most likely staged
The Hellenic Police (ELAS) is casting doubt on the reported break-in at the election director’s office of the Interior Ministry at noon on April 26, concluding that it was most likely staged given that no incriminating fingerprints or DNA were found at the scene of the supposed crime.
What’s more, the investigation of the ministry’s internal IRIS mail system did not find any signs of tampering on the computer of the director of elections on the day of the alleged incident.
Doubts were also raised by Interior Ministry officials who spoke to Kathimerini on the condition of anonymity. They noted that the employees at the 10 other offices on the same floor as the election director’s did not notice anything unusual, while the employees of the private security company at the entrance did not record any suspicious movement either.
Police are now correlating the case with the ongoing investigation by judicial authorities and the Hellenic Data Protection Authority into the notorious leak of emails of Greek expatriates that ended up in the possession of New Democracy’s MEP, Anna-Michelle Assimakopoulou.
This is because on the day the report was filed, the Interior Ministry’s internal audit was completed and submitted to the prosecution and the Data Protection Authority, which found “non-institutionally foreseen circulation, within the Ministry of Interior, of personal data of Greek citizens living abroad.”
Equally significant is the fact that a few days before the alleged break-in, the first findings emerged from the investigation of the Data Protection Authority regarding how and with whose participation the disputed list of emails was circulated. “The break-in could be used as an alibi,” competent sources commented to Kathimerini.
Investigative authorities have proceeded to lift the confidentiality on the phone of a specific Interior Ministry official, who had access to the list of expatriate emails.
