The government is reportedly planning to acquire a new surveillance system by repealing its own 2022 spyware law.
According to media reports, Greek police are preparing for a presidential decree to set the conditions for the purchase of surveillance software or devices (Pegasus, Predator etc.) National Intelligence Service (ΕΥΠ), the Department for Combating Special Crimes Related to Violence (the official name of the Anti-Terrorist Service), and the Directorate for Information and Analysis of the Hellenic Police.
In essence, this is an activation of the provision of Article 13 of Law 5002/2022, by which the government declared about the ban to distribute such software, but only to private individuals and not to public bodies: “A presidential decree issued within three (3) months from the date of entry into force of this Act, on the proposal of the Ministers of Citizen Protection, National Defense, Justice and Digital Management, shall determine the conditions under which public entities are permitted to enter into contracts on behalf of public entities for the procurement of software or monitoring devices under Article 370F of the Criminal Code for the fulfillment of their purposes, as well as additional conditions for their use.”
According to the information, the presidential decree was prepared by the Greek Prime Minister's office following recommendations and proposals from all relevant ministries on the conditions for the purchase and use of software designed to replace the interface system currently used by ΕΥΠ. It should be recalled that neither the purchase nor the use of such systems are public, and their acquisition is carried out with secret funds.
In particular, according to the law of the current government, the technical and procedural details of the operation of the ΕΥΠ electronic software are determined by a decision of the Commander of the Service and the Minister of Justice, which is not published in the Government Gazette, and for its operation by the Anti-Terrorist Service, a joint decision of the Ministers of Citizen Protection and Justice is required, which is also not published.
Predator & Pegasus: Strict conditions. The Greek authorities are reportedly interested in acquiring a new covert surveillance system. More modern than the currently known Pegasus and Predator. In particular, we are talking about software that does not require sending an SMS or email to catch a phone under surveillance.
Such systems are being developed for use by foreign agencies. The problem, as usual, is institutionalization and strict conditions to make their use by government agencies legal.
These conditions are also set out in Law 5002/2022 of the current government. It is also referred to in the planned presidential decree. According to the same information, the Communications Privacy Protection Authority will be informed about the new interception system after the purchase.
It is noteworthy that this bill appeared just a couple of years after a major scandal related to surveillance of the opposition, journalists, businessmen and ministers of his own government, which caused an international resonance, ended.
Miraculously (Greek journalists talk about support from the “White House”) the scandal was hushed up. At the same time, Kyriakos Mitsotakis had to fire his nephew, who headed his administration, as well as the head of National Intelligence. What this scandal cost Greece and Mitsotakis personally is still hidden behind seven seals.
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