Old sins have long shadows

An eavesdropping scandal in 2021-23, involving the surveillance of the phone of Opposition leader Nikos Androulakis (then a MEP, and candidate to the leadership of PASOK – unfriendly to the Government) is coming back to haunt this same Government, however much effort was expended to defuse it.

Androulakis was spied upon both by the (official) National Intelligence Service, under the permission of a special public prosecutor “for reasons of national security”, and through informal channels of Pegasus-like Predator spyware. Androulakis should not feel lonely: important figures of Greek public life were alsounder surveillance such as the Armed Forces Chief of Staff Constantine Floros and (then-Energy Minister) Vice-President of the ruling Nea Dimocratia Party and current Finance Minister Kostis Hadjidakis – a potential successor to the current Prime Minister, should Kyriakos Mitsotakis opt for a transfer to the ranks of high European officialdom.

When the scandal erupted, close Mitsotakis associate (and nephew, in line with Mediterranean-country tradition) Gregory Dimitriadis as well as Intelligence Service chief Panagiotis Kontoleon were dumped, quite unceremoniously at that. Still, when Androulakis demanded that the reasons of his being spied upon be communicated to him (as well as the findings of the covert operation) the Authority for Communications Security and Protection – headed by respected former high court judge Christos Rammos – denied him any such information. The reason: the Government had meanwhile passed a law – using its parliamentary majority – prohibiting communication of any information to persons subject to surveillance under the “national security” clause (this clause was subsequently watered down).

The next twist in the story is quite interesting: the highest administrative Court – the Council of State – ruled unanimously (although belatedly) that the legislation forbidding disclosure of the facts of surveillance under “national security” to the victim of such behavior was unconstitutional – and thus inapplicable.

So, today Androulakis is expected to formally ask again to be informed by the Authority for Communications Security and Protection. He may face a “Catch-22” situation: the Authority has seen its set-up doctored in such a way that its majority is now “Government-friendly”: will it abide by the Council of State decision? If yes, don’t’ think that – as politicians are wont to say – “ample light will be shed on this unfortunate matter”. Records of the Androulakis surveillance – digitally kept, of course – may well prove to have been erased. The (sedate) local media had somehow tired of the story; their European counterparts – needled by, e.g., the European Parliament PEGA Committee – were more impressed. If the content of the surveillance surfaces after all, there may well be some sort of rekindling of the (long-forgotten) “public’s right to know).

So, as the saying goes, old sins may well turn to have long shadows.