Greek parliament votes to form committee of inquiry into surveillance scandal

By Ahmet Gencturk

ANKARA (AA) - Greece’s parliament voted late Monday to form a committee of inquiry into a surveillance scandal that has rocked the country’s political scene, local media reported.

The motion to establish the committee received the backing of 142 of the 299 lawmakers present, all from opposition parties, said the state-run AMNA news agency.

All 157 lawmakers of the ruling Nea Dimokratia (New Democracy) party abstained by voting “present,” the agency noted.

Speaking during the plenary session of parliament, Giorgos Katrougalos, a senior lawmaker and former foreign minister with the main opposition SYRIZA-PS party, argued that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is the mastermind behind the surveillance practices.

Mitsotakis is responsible for the decline of parliamentary democracy and the rule of law, he said, adding the government has been trying to cover up the scandal.

Referring to the monitoring of Nikos Androulakis, the leader of the opposition PASOK-KINAL party, by the National Intelligence Service (EYP), Katrougalos pointed out that the government still had not revealed why Androulakis was put under surveillance.

He is either a spy and hence a threat to national security, or this is not the case and consequently, his surveillance is illegal, he said.

Speaking for PASOK-KINAL’s parliamentary group, senior lawmaker Michalis Katrinis stressed that the prime minister is refusing to take responsibility for the scandal.

“Mitsotakis believes that he can monitor his political opponents and actors in public life and when this is revealed invoke either non-existent national reasons or shift the responsibility to others,” Katrinis said.

He also insisted that monitoring allegations and complaints by other political figures and institutions, including the Greek Communist Party (KKE), should be investigated.

Dimitris Koutsoubas, the general secretary of the KKE, insisted however that the party was under surveillance even before the scandal erupted but its numerous complaints since 2016 remained unanswered.

He asked whether the Greek authorities or certain foreign parties decided to monitor the KKE.

-Surveillance scandal

In a televised address to the nation on Aug. 8, Mitsotakis acknowledged that Androulakis was wiretapped by the EYP but denied knowledge of the operation.

"Although everything was done legally, the EYP underestimated the political dimension of this action. It was formally OK but politically unacceptable," he said.

The announcement followed the resignation of EYP head Andreas Kontoleon and the Secretary General to the Prime Minister, Grigoris Dimitriadis, on Aug. 5.

The scandal unfolded on Aug. 4, when Kontoleon told a parliamentary committee that his agency had been spying on financial journalist Thanasis Koukakis.

A parliamentary probe was consequently launched after Androulakis complained to top prosecutors about an attempt to hack his mobile phone with Israeli-made Predator surveillance software.