Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Claims “Export of Predator Spyware to Sudan”

Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis admitted on Wednesday that Intellexa’s Predator spyware was exported from Greece to Sudan.

This is the first time an official has recognized such an export, and it comes at a time when the Central African country is in civil war and 150 Greeks trapped in Khartoum and other parts of the Sudan along with hundreds of other European citizens.

Predator στο Σουδάν pic.twitter.com/aK10RgIUzP

— Η ΑΥΓΗ (@AvgiOnline) April 19, 2023

Speaking to Real FM, Varvitsiotis said “it looks like Greece exported the Predator to Sudan,” stressing, however, that the export did not affect the outcome of the country’s ongoing civil war. “The export license given to Predator and Sudan has nothing to do with the civil war. The civil war was not caused by this,” the minister said. Obviously realizing his mistake, he stated that all the information he had was obtained from press reports. “Since I am not qualified to make such statements, from what has already appeared in the press, it follows that exports to Sudan took place,” he said.

Interestingly, so far there has been no statement or press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding Varvitsiotis’ statements. According to reports New York Times Last year, spyware was secretly sent to the RSF paramilitaries who are now attempting a violent coup d’état, which experts say was one of the factors that triggered the riots.

An Israeli publication conducted a thorough investigation into the supply of Predator haaretzwhose journalists found evidence of the transfer of a spy product to an African country in an extremely unstable state.

As early as mid-November 2022, the responsible Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy, Kostas Fragogiannis, ordered an internal investigation to find out whether the export licenses for Intellexa SA products were legal and whether national and European software export regulations were followed.

In charge of issuing export licenses was then General Secretary Yannis Smirlis, who resigned shortly after the NYT publication to, he said, take over the ND campaign.

The results of the investigation were supposed to be ready before Christmas, but Easter had already passed, and the results were never published. It should be noted that the main opposition party SYRIZA demanded that the conclusion of the relevant investigation be made public after the disclosure of information about its export to African states such as Madagascar and Sudan.

Following Varvitsiotis’ statements on Wednesday, SYRIZA issued a statementin which she called them “a blunder” and noted that two days ago, when the main opposition party asked if the Mitsotakis government had given permission for the Predator to be exported to Sudan, a government spokesman replied that “SYRIZA is giving conspiracy theories.”

What this statement will backfire on Miltiadis Varvitsiotis is still unknown, but the situation and the accusations against the government are quite serious. They could also affect New Democracy’s ratings, already badly hurt by accusations of spying on the opposition, journalists, its own ministers and their families.

At the same time, the public is even more outraged by the fact that the authorities, despite numerous facts and evidence of the use of spyware, constantly refuse to confirm this. However, ignoring any accusations, both reasoned and unfounded, is a special feature of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who considers himself above any criticism.

Έστειλε η κυβέρνηση της ΝΔ το Predator στο Σουδάν; Ενέπλεξε, έστω έμμεσα, την Ελλάδα στον εμφύλιο στη χώρα;
Θυμίζω ότι, κατά την Καθημερινή, πέρα ​​από τη Μαδαγασκάρη (όπου την αποστολή του παράνομκ ύ επιβεβαίωσε το ΥΠΕΞ επισήμως στους New York Times), την ίδια περίοδο…

— George Katrougalos (@gkatr) April 16, 2023

Giorgos Katrugalos, former Deputy Foreign Minister under the SYRIZA government, referring to reports in the kathimerini newspaper, recalled in a tweet that the Predator was exported to eastern Sudan in November 2021, and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz warned that “spy equipment in the hands of the RSF will change the balance of power in favor of the former militias, which would bring Sudan one step closer to open confrontation with the country’s armed forces and increase the risk of civil war.”

Two months ago @EU_Commission asked GR🇬🇷 & CY🇨🇾 about the export of #Predators spyware to Sudan. In view of events in Sudan, can @VDombrovskis confirm if any clarification has been received by now? If not, what action will be taken to ensure the Dual Use Regulation is upheld? pic.twitter.com/lWM1k7Nwh7

— Sophie in ‘t Veld (@SophieintVeld) April 17, 2023

Please note that the relevant committee of the European Parliament requested the European Commission to report whether Greece exported Predator spyware to #Sudan, but the Mitsotakis government pretended that it did not receive such a request…

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