Greek Supreme Court Prosecutor Dogiakos opens investigation into government phone surveillance case

The Prosecutor summoned Greek publisher and journalist Kostas Vaxevanis

The Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Isidoros Dogiakos, intervened regarding the publication of names in the newspaper “Dokumento”, including ministers and major entrepreneurs as well as journalists and other public figures, whose telephone communications had been allegedly under state surveillance.

Dogiakos has already ordered the Athens District Attorney’s Office to conduct a preliminary criminal investigation into the allegations and to summon the newspaper’s editor, journalist Kostas Vaxevanis, to testify.

According to Mr. Dogiako’s order, the journalist must be summoned immediately to be examined and to provide all the evidence he has, while at the same time any other persons he mentions should also be summoned and examined, providing all the evidence they have on the case in question.

Already, the order of the supreme prosecutor’s office has been forwarded to the head of the First Instance Prosecutor’s Office to be implemented by summoning the publisher and journalist Kostas Vaxevanis.

The publisher Kostas Vaxevanis is expected to appear at the office of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Isidoros Dogiakos, tomorrow Monday, on the occasion of the publication of his newspaper about the surveillance.

In fact, the publisher was already summoned by the Head of Criminal Prosecutions, Angeliki Triantaphyllou, to testify and provide all the evidence he has, after the order for an investigation by the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, but he refused to appear, stating that he would visit Dogiakos instead.

The scandal, which shook Greece’s centre-right government this year, centered on the EYP secret service’s tapping of opposition party leader Nikos Androulakis’ phone. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he was unaware of the operation, which he said was legal — on national security grounds — but wrong. EYP’s chief and a close Mitsotakis aide resigned.

Apart from EYP, Androulakis, head of the left-wing PASOK party — Greece’s third-largest — was separately targeted with Predator spyware, as were another opposition lawmaker and three journalists. The government denies using Predator, which allows the monitoring of calls, messages, photos, or video on a phone.

Last month a Greek parliamentary committee investigated Androulakis’ surveillance but its overall conclusions remain classified.

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