Wiretapping scandal goes to court in Greece

ATHENS

A trial linked to the illegal wiretapping of politicians and journalists using the spy software Predator opened Wednesday in Greece, three years after a scandal that rocked the country.

Four people, two Israelis and two Greeks, are being tried at the Athens Criminal Court for the "violation of telephone communication secrecy" and face a maximum five-year prison sentence.

Their trial, initially scheduled for March, was postponed by six months.

Three of the defendants are former executives of the Greek company Intellexa, which marketed the Predator spyware in Greece.

Predator allows hackers to access messages, photos and even remotely activate the microphone or camera of the infected device.

In 2023, Intellexa was added to a list of companies banned in the United States as a threat to national security, alongside Cytrox, which developed Predator in North Macedonia.

One of the main victims of the scandal, Greek financial journalist Thanassis Koukakis, told AFP it was "a true violation of the rule of law."

The case, uncovered by Koukakis in early 2022, rattled the conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leading to resignations by the head of Greece's EYP National Intelligence Service as well as the prime minister's top aide and nephew.

Koukakis has filed a civil lawsuit in the trial after being placed under surveillance by EYP with the spyware.

"My surveillance began with the secret services in 2020, before my phone was infected in 2021 by eight text messages coming from Predator," the journalist said.

"The government tried to downplay the case at the start despite media revelations to shield the real political culprits."