The threats of the prosecutor of the Supreme Court about wiretapping caused outrage in society

Prosecutor of the Supreme Administrative Council (Supreme Court) of Greece Isidoros Dogiakos threatened members of the independent Communications Security and Privacy Authority (ADAE) imprisonment if they continue to check mobile phone providers for surveillance of politicians and journalists.

“The independent communications security and privacy authority ΑΔΑΕ no longer has the authority to respond to citizens’ inquiries about whether they have been monitored for national security reasons,” Dogiacos said in a statement released Tuesday. According to the prosecutor of the Supreme Administrative Council of Greece, jurisdiction over such matters has passed to a three-person commission, consisting of two prosecutors and the head of the ΑΔΑΕ, which is responsible for considering such requests on a case-by-case basis.

The Prosecutor of the Supreme Administrative Council issued an opinion at the request of the company OTE telecoms filed after a visit to its headquarters by the ADAE group investigating the wiretapping of independent MEP Giorgos Kyrtsos and investigative journalist Tasos Telloglu.

The reaction of the head of the ΑΔΑΕ, Christos Rammos, was prompt, who stated that “no state body can exercise any form of preventive control or prudential supervision of the authorities.” He said the prosecutor’s “controversial opinion” “grossly violates the independence of the ADAE, which follows directly from the constitution.”

Opposition political parties were also critical of Dogiakos’ opinion. SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras named Dogiacos’s intervention was a “flagrant violation of the constitution” and recalled that on December 7, 2022, he submitted a request to the ADAE asking for information about the wiretapping of specific citizens who play a decisive role in public life. In his statement, Tsipras urged Dogiakos to arrest him for requesting information about the wiretapping: “I waive my parliamentary immunity, my office is at Eleftherias Square 1.”

PASOK-KINAL also said in a statement that “the Prosecutor of the Supreme Administrative Council obstructs the investigation of ADAE, which, as an independent constitutional body, must carry out its work without interference.”

A sharp reaction to the opinion of Dogiacos followed not only from opposition parties, but also from experts in constitutional law. Akritas Kaidatzis, Associate Professor of Constitutional Law and Constitutional History at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in a written statement to the newspaper documentonews.grwhich he also tweeted, called Dogiakos’s statement “overt interference” which is also “institutionally shocking”.

2/3 Οv. 5002/22 τροποποίησε τον. 2225/94 για τη διαδικασία άρσης απορρήτου. *Δεν* τροποποίησε σε τίποτα τον. 3115/03 για τις εξουσίες της ΑΔΑΕ. Κατά τη γνωμοδότηση, ωστόσο, ο νέος νόμος σιωπηρά (!) Νομικά εξωφρενικό

— Akritas Kaidatzis (@AkritasKaidatz1) January 10, 2023

“The opinion of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court constitutes an open interference with the activities of an independent authority protected by the Constitution. Interference with an ongoing investigation is not only ridiculous, it is institutionally shocking. The opinion was not given at the request of a judicial or state body, but at the request of a large private telecommunications company. This is a form of “privatization” of the judicial function. It is institutionally illegitimate and sad.”

President of the Center for European Constitutional Law Xenophon Kontiadis lashed out at Isidoros Dogiakos in a Facebook post. [ADAE]”.

“The current opinion of the Attorney of the Supreme Court, which seeks to limit the control work of the Office for the Protection of Privacy of Communications, is legally untenable, misinterpreting the current legislation and article 19 par. 2 of the Constitution. It is clearly aimed at the castration of power, as we, unfortunately, predicted a few days ago. The legal world will strongly oppose the unthinkable interference of the prosecutor in the constitutionally and legally fixed mission of the SAI, which indicates another attempt to hush up the surveillance scandal, “- noted Mr. Kontiadis.

Lawyer Thanasis Kampagiannis calls Isidoros Doyakos a “nightmare of the executive” in connection with today’s intervention of the prosecutor of the Supreme Court and his threats against ADAE, the newspaper writes. Avgi. At the same time, he points out that this opinion “an attempt was made to preventively suppress” inspections by an independent body, which is a “black page in the history of the prosecutorial and judicial authorities of the country”, adding that “the content of the opinion is not legal, but purely political.” In conclusion, Kampagiannis emphasizes that the prosecutor of the Supreme Court “deliberately turned the judiciary into an outspoken champion of the Mitsotakis regime.”

PS The New Democracy has strong support from Brussels and Washington, thanks to its active anti-Russian stance and the unprecedented number of US military bases stationed in Greece. Therefore, it can afford any violations of the constitution, laws and other things, up to the declaration of a dictatorship. Nobody will judge her for this.

“He, of course, is a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch”: so called Somosu President Roosevelt.

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