“A Provocative Cover-up”? Backlash Follows the Archiving of Greece’s Wiretapping Scandal

The Greek Supreme Court “insulted and undermined the authorization of justice,” the main absorption PASOK said. Credit: Gerard McGovern CC BY 2.0

The determination by the Greek Supreme Court to archive the lawsuit of Greece’s wiretapping ungraded brought wide accusations of an “institutional deviation” and “provocative cover-up” from absorption parties, and ineligible experts.

On Monday, April 27, 2026, Konstantinos Tzavellas, the Supreme Court Prosecutor, issued an bid to archive the case, arguing that nary substantively caller grounds was presented to warrant reopening the investigation.

The determination came conscionable 1 concern time aft lawyer Zacharias Kesses, who represents victims of the Predator spyware, formally notified the Supreme Court of his intent to taxable new, confidential grounds and denote six caller lawsuits involving salient figures, reportedly including a high-ranking authoritative from the ruling party.

Critics, peculiarly Zacharias Kesses, constituent retired that Prosecutor Tzavellas was the supervisor of the National Intelligence Service (EYP) during the play of the wiretaps and had personally signed the surveillance bid for writer Thanasis Koukakis. This has led to demands that helium should person recused himself.

Notable figures, including erstwhile heads of autarkic authorities (Christos Rammos, Kostas Menoudakos) and instrumentality professors (Antonis Karabatzos), person expressed daze oregon beardown disapproval. They picture the determination arsenic a nonaccomplishment of the judicial strategy that undermines the regularisation of instrumentality and nationalist trust.

PASOK: Wiretapping archiving undermines the regularisation of law

The Greek Supreme Court “insulted and undermined the authorization of justness itself” by the main prosecutor’s determination not to retrieve the wiretapping lawsuit from the archives of his predecessor to reexamine the case, PASOK-Movement for Change (KINAL) person Nikos Androulakis charged during an bonzer property league astatine the party’s offices connected Monday.

Attending the property league were Androulakis’ tribunal lawyers and the ineligible typical of writer Thanassis Koukakis and different 13 individuals whose cellphone conversations were illegally tapped by the Predator software.

“This determination mauls the consciousness of justness successful the sanction of backroom deals astatine Maximos Mansion, with a retired serviceman publically blackmailing the premier minister,” the main absorption person continued, claiming that the enactment was “yet different incidental successful the contempt for the regularisation of instrumentality and the separation of powers.”

Androulakis said that justness should person done the slightest probe possible, by summoning Tai Dilian to attest astir Predator spyware, which helium has said is sold lone to states and authorities services. “So they refused the investigation,” PASOK’s person said, charging the authorities of “a corrupt ruling powerfulness and a premier curate who erodes institutions to clasp his rule.”

PASOK besides announced plans for a Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry and a imaginable ballot of nary assurance against the government.

Other absorption parties

SYRIZA: Denounced the determination arsenic a “dangerous development” for democracy.

Nea Aristera: Accused the judiciary of protecting the Prime Minister’s bureau (Maximos Mansion).

KKE: Stated that the cover-up is simply a cardinal diagnostic of the “bourgeois regularisation of law.”

Alexis Tsipras: Expressed astonishment astatine the velocity of the judicial decision, noting that matters archived “easily” tin beryllium reopened conscionable arsenic easy nether antithetic circumstances.

Government response

In response, Government Spokesman Pavlos Marinakis labeled Androulakis’ attacks arsenic “dangerous behaviour for ideology and the regularisation of law.” He further noted that the Supreme Court main prosecutor, whose determination was criticized had been appointed by a bulk of Greece’s high-level judges and prosecutors.

“You indispensable recognize that immoderate onslaught against the judiciary is problematic,” Marinakis said, addressing the main absorption person directly. “When specified an onslaught comes from the person of the main opposition, it is simply a behaviour that threatens our ideology and the regularisation of law.”

What’s adjacent aft the archiving of the case?

Despite the archiving of the case, ineligible experts clarify that portion misdemeanor charges whitethorn beryllium taxable to statute of limitations, felonies cannot beryllium expunged.

The governmental absorption intends to property forward, perchance summoning Intellexa proprietor Tal Dilian to Parliament to supply the documents helium claims to possess.

Related: Wiretapping Scandal Haunts Greek Government arsenic Intellexa Breaks Silence