MEPs may visit Cyprus over spying in Greece

A delegation of a European Parliament committee looking into the use of spyware may visit the island, apparently to investigate any link between Cyprus and the eavesdropping affair in Greece, reports said on Monday.

Citing unnamed sources, the Cyprus News Agency said the team of MEPs could arrive here in early November – their first destination in a two-part mission that will next take them to Greece.

The connecting thread between the two countries is thought to be the use of Predator software – deployed in Greece against a journalist and an opposition politician – given that the spyware is owned by a company formerly incorporated in Cyprus.

A type of spyware called Predator was deployed against Nikos Androulakis, the leader of Greece’s opposition socialist Pasok party, and journalist Thanasis Koukakis, according to a forensic analysis by digital rights group Citizen Lab and the European Parliament produced in March this year.

Earlier, a December 2021 report by Citizen Lab said Predator was developed by a company called Cytrox.

The report quoted a 2019 article in Forbes, which stated that “Cytrox was ‘rescued’ by Tal Dilian, a former Israel Defence Forces Unit 81 commander, whose company WiSpear (which appears to have been renamed Passitora Ltd.) is based in Limassol, Cyprus and reportedly acquired Cytrox in 2018.”

According to the same report, “Dilian is also the founder and CEO of Intellexa.”

“Cytrox is part of the so-called ‘Intellexa alliance’, a marketing label for a range of mercenary surveillance vendors that emerged in 2019. The consortium of companies includes Nexa Technologies (formerly Amesys), WiSpear/Passitora Ltd., Cytrox, and Senpai…”

Citizen Lab added: “Originally based in Cyprus, a recent report indicates that Intellexa now operates from Greece, which is also listed as the LinkedIn location of its founder, Dilian. A preliminary review of corporate registry documentation suggests that the alliance has a corporate presence in not only Greece (Intellexa SA), but also in Ireland (Intellexa Limited).”

Dilian is the same individual implicated in the late 2019 ‘spy van’ affair here in Cyprus. He and two others were charged in connection with the case, but the attorney-general subsequently dropped the prosecution.

The European Parliament set up a special committee back in March to investigate the use of spyware. The committee is scheduled to submit a final report after 12 months.

Its vice-chair is Cypriot MEP Georgios Georgiou. It was not possible to reach Georgiou on Monday.

Later this week, the European Parliament committee – known as Pega – will hold another hearing exclusively focused on the eavesdropping in Greece. Taking part in that hearing will be Koukakis, the Greek journalist whose phone was allegedly bugged.

In an interview with Politis newspaper published over the weekend, Koukakis said he holds Cypriot authorities partly responsible for Intellexa’s activities in Greece.

“Had Cypriot justice dealt adequately with the case of the black van and imposed the necessary sanctions for the eavesdropping in Cyprus, Intellexa and Tal Dilian might not have been able to start operating undisturbed in Greece.”