Journalists from the Hellenic country reveal that the secret services systematically spied on politicians, businessmen and reporters in recent years, in some cases using illegal systems
Stavros he found out by chance, on any given day last November, when opening a newspaper. his name, Stavros Malichudiswas not in the text or in the leaked documentsbut the details were clear: according to the Greek newspaper ‘efsyn’a journalist investigating the story of a refugee minor imprisoned on a Greek island was being spied by the Greek secret services, the EYP.
The story was his. “I contacted the newspaper and they confirmed that it was me, that my name had been blacked outbut that I was being spied on, and that they were investigating who I had spoken to, what they had told me,” Malichudis explains, and that at that moment he became concerned, got paralyzedeverything was complicated.
“They were very difficult months, because it gave me afraid to call someone, contact a source. He couldn’t work, because she thought he was putting in danger to the person with whom he was speaking. I didn’t know exactly what was happening, what they knew about me, what they wanted. But now, knowing everything we know now, I would be Calmer“says the journalist.
What is known now is a lot. In recent months – especially since August – independent Greek reporters have revealed that the Hellenic government has been spying at discretion in recent damage. Few are saved: apart from journalists, among those spied on are opposition leaders, businessmen, human rights lawyers, anti-vaccine activists And till ministers and members of the Executive of the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
According to publications in the Greek press, the previous prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, was spied on during his tenure; as was the leader of the country’s third party last year, the PASOK, Nikos Andrulakisand the current foreign and finance ministers, Nikos Dendias Y Jristos Staikuras, among a very long etcetera. Greece will celebrate parliamentary elections in the spring of next year.
The epicenter of the storm
Since the revelation of the spying on Andrulakis —carried out first with traditional media and then with the Israeli software Predator—, fingers have pointed in all directions, but above all in one direction: towards himself. mitsotakis and his nephew, Grigoris Dimitriadis. Until August, Dimitriadis was the head of his uncle’s office and it was he — and his office — who was put in command of the greek secret services.
“After the revelations that we began to make, Mitsotakis assured that I did not know anything. He keeps saying it: ‘We don’t even have anything to do with Predator, and I didn’t know anything about Andrulakis’ surveillance,’ “explains the investigative reporter. Thodoris Chondrogiannosmember of the network of Reporters Unitedwho has been at the forefront of the revelations.
“It is impossible that he did not know what was happening. That his nephew and secretary could do something to so large scale and that the prime minister did not know. Mitsotakis literally says that he did not know what was happening on the other side of the wall from his office. It seems impossible to me. It seems, more than anything, that they play the card of ‘we are stupid’ instead of saying ‘we are bad’because then they would be forced to resign,” continues Chondrogiannos.
This autumn, the Greek Parliament launched a commission of inquiry of what happened —which has been systematically blocked by the majority of the government party, new democracy—.
There is also an open judicial investigation, and two active judicial cases: one, to clarify how the revelations to the press have been produced; the second is a defamation suit of Dimitriadis—Mitsotakis’ nephew—against Chondrogiannos and several other reporters.
Security as an excuse
In all the cases of the spies that have been accepted —they are a minority—, the secret services have ensured that the tapping was done for reasons of “National securityThis is the case, for example, of Stavros Malichudis, whose reporting work has focused on the ill-treatment that the Greek authorities carry out against migrants and refugees.
“National security is certainly a very important legal asset for any society —explains Spydrion VlachopulosProfessor of Law at the University of Athens—. But it is a good that has to be interpreted tightly and that it should include only those incidents that constitute a real danger against democracy Y territorial integrity from a country. In other words: national security cannot be used as a pretext for no other purpose.”
“Looking at the recent incidents, with alleged tens of thousands of wiretaps approved every year, in a small country like Greeceunfortunately it is impossible to rule out that this ‘national security’ has been used as a simple excuse to spy political opponents and journalists“, continues Vlachopulos.
For Chondrogiannos, the null result of all the listening shows its nature. “No one has come out of the espionage Judicial procedement against anyone. And this shows that national security was used as an excuse. If there had been real reasons, something would have come of it. But no,” says the journalist.
“The only thing we know is that after the revelations of the scandals, the secret services they destroyed their documents about Andrulakis and Thanasis Kukakis [otro periodista espiado]. For this we do not expect any royal punishment. I am pessimistic; I don’t think justice will be done. The Government has had all the time in the world, after the resignation of Dimitriadis, [el sobrino del primer ministro]to destroy all the necessary evidence,” continues Chondrogiannos.
And meanwhile, Stavros Malichudis continues hoping for. His case was like the others. He doesn’t know the why of everything. The reason he receives is one and the same always: national security. “A year has passed,” says the reporter, “and still I do not know why they spied on me.”