Cyprus’ role in Greek spy scandal will come to the fore, Papadakis says

Reactions over Cyprus’ link with the espionage case involving the Greek state spying on Greek EU lawmaker Nikos Androulakis continue to mount as EU parliament’s plenary session looms.

The European Parliament’s socialist group on Tuesday had called for a full investigation and a plenary debate on Greece’s wiretapping scandal.

The next plenary sitting will be held on September 12.

Akel MEP Giorgos Georgiou and Edek MEP Demetris Papadakis told daily Politis on Friday that the plenary discussion will focus both on the use of espionage software in Greece and also on the operation of companies producing such software in Cyprus.

Moreover, following his party’s announcement on Thursday slamming the government for being in denial over Cyprus’ involvement in the scandal, Georgiou doubled down urging government spokesman Marios Pelekanos to tone down his rhetoric “because in a few days you will be forced to recall much, like you did with Al Jazeera and the golden passports.”

He also said that the evidence about to come to the fore was overwhelming, indicating that surveillance services were purchased in Cyprus well before the discussion over the Predator software and Tal Dilian’s ‘spy van’ broke out.

He claims that the story goes back to 2014 and 2015.

Georgiou is currently the vice-chair of the PEGA committee of inquiry investigating the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware and has called on the EU commission to also investigate Cyprus’ involvement in the scandal concerning the whole of Europe.

Papadakis in his turn said that he expects Cyprus’ role to come to the fore at the plenary’s discussion and wondered why an institutional framework governing the use of such malevolent systems has yet to be introduced in Cyprus.

He further reiterated that there are indications that these surveillance systems are in the possession of not just state authorities such as the intelligence service or the police but also in the possession of political parties and private individuals who may have purchased services from Dilian’s companies.

On Thursday presidential candidate Nikos Christodoulides in an announcement also called for the scandal to be investigated citing the state’s legal and moral obligation to investigate potential Cyprus link with the affair in Greece “so as to alleviate, given that a link does not exist, any doubts related to our country.”

Presidential candidate Giorgos Kolokasides also issued an announcement on Thursday over the scandal proposing that an “independent investigation committee with wide investigative powers be called to investigate the Cyprus angle of the scandal and examine through and through whether illegal surveillance took place in the past ten years or more.”