Akel says it’s determined not to let spyware probe drop

Opposition Akel on Monday said it will hand over material to the independent anti-corruption authority regarding the use of spyware, vowing not to drop the issue until some accountability has been attained.

At a news conference in Nicosia, Akel MP Aristos Damianou said a host of questions still hover over the Israeli ‘spy van’ affair as well as the findings of a year-long investigation by a European Parliament committee on the use of spyware.

“The facts are there, and they speak for themselves. A black spy van roaming the streets of Cyprus,” Damianou told reporters.

“A police investigation ascertained illegal placement of three antennas at Larnaca airport, with over nine-and-a-half million violations of privacy and communications. In the Republic of Cyprus, we have production and export of dual-use software, spyware, with proven political entanglements, obfuscation in terms of the information given to the public, lack of transparency in publishing reports, and unfortunately a cover-up of surveillance activities by those in government.”

Directing his fire at the previous administration of Nicos Anastasiades, Damianou said the reality is that Cyprus served as a ‘nursery’ for companies manufacturing and exporting spyware such as Pegasus and Predator.

“Naturally, no minister formally acknowledged this or took political responsibility.”

He said the House legal affairs committee, which had looked into the matter, managed to confirm many of Akel’s suspicions. One such confirmation was that the police had colluded with ‘Israeli agents’, as he put it.

He was understood to be alluding to Tal Dilian, an ex-Israeli intelligence officer and CEO of the Larnaca-based company WiSpear that operated the so-called ‘spy van’.

“While investigating them for possible criminal offences, at the same time they [the police] were doing business with them. We were forced to present invoices, so that the current leadership of the police had to revise its initial statements where they had pleaded ignorance.”

According to Damianou, evidence presented earlier in parliament also showed that the Disy party had interceded with the commerce ministry regarding the sale by WiSpear of dual-use software to the Netherlands.

“Also confirmed was the production, use, distribution in Cyprus, and the transfer and export of illegal software to Greece and other countries. Let me remind you that at the time the president [Anastasiades] dismissed these allegations as a figment of our imagination.”

The Akel MP went on to suggest a cover-up by authorities. In November 2021 the attorney-general’s office suspended the prosecution of three individuals – including Dilian – charged in connection with the ‘spy van’ case.

In February 2022, a criminal court slapped a €76,000 fine on WiSpear. Effectively the company was accused of setting up an electronic device or system consisting of WiFi access points capable of intercepting private communications without permission.

The court cleared the company of 49 of the counts. The defendant pleaded guilty to the other 42 counts.

In its judgement, Larnaca criminal court said the extent of the violations was extensive both in terms of the number of persons and in terms of duration, but that it was accidental and non-targeted. No person suffered direct damage as a result, it added.

“Akel shall not let this affair go away, as is the norm in this country. Beyond compiling a report at the House legal affairs committee and discussing the issue at the plenum, we will deliver the material we’ve collected to the anti-corruption authority so that it can take it from there.”

Closing, Damianou said that the production and use of spyware, other than leading to “mass violations” of human rights in Cyprus, also “infected Greece and tarnished Cyprus’ reputation overseas.”

In May this year, the European Parliament’s committee of inquiry investigating the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (Pega) referred to Cyprus as an export hub for spyware.

MEPs called on Cyprus to repeal all export licences for spyware products that are not in line with EU legislation.