Greek PM defends secret service amid wiretap scandal

Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday said the work of the country's EYP intelligence service is essential to the country's security, despite what he described as a misstep in tapping an opposition politician's phone.

Mitsotakis told parliament the phone tapping of Nikos Androulakis, leader of the socialist opposition PASOK party, was wrong — but did not disclose the reason behind it.

He also called the phone tapping a legal but "politically unacceptable" operation.

"When I found out I did not hesitate to say it was wrong," Mitsotakis said. "But any initiative to remedy the slip-up should not undermine EYP's important work."

The scandal over wiretapping of Androulakis and a financial journalist has turned up the heat on the conservative prime minister, who brought EYP under his direct control when he took office three years ago.

Earlier this month, Mitsotakis sacked the chief of EYP and his chief of staff over the surveillance scandal, appointing a veteran diplomat to run the service.

Opposition wants to know reason

Alexis Tsipras, the leader of leftist SYRIZA , the main political opposition, accused Mitsotakis of criminal behavior and called on him to reveal the reason behind the tapping of Androulakis's phone.

"You are legally, politically but primarily morally obliged to answer a crucial question: Why you were surveilling the European [Parliament member] and then-candidate and now head of the third largest party in Greece,'' Tsipras asked.

"What were the national security reasons? Is he a foreign agent, a spy? Your refusal to tell the truth is in itself an answer," Tsipras said.

He also called for Mitsotakis' resignation and early elections. The government's term of office ends in summer 2023.

'Predator' on phone

The three-month tapping of Androulakis' phone in September 2021 was uncovered after Androulakis, as a member of the European Parliament, was informed by the European Parliament's cybersecurity service that he had been the target of a wiretapping attempt by the Predator spyware.

In April, Greek financial journalist Thanassis Koukakis said he was informed by digital rights group Citizen Lab that his phone had been the target of surveillance by Predator software from July to September 2021.

The government insists it has not used Predator, but has admitted Androulakis' phone was separately under surveillance by the intelligence service.

dh/fb (AP, Reuters)