Greece Starts Trial Over the Country’s ‘Watergate’ 

Four individuals went on trial in Greece on Wednesday, accused of involvement in a major wiretapping scandal dubbed “Greece’s Watergate,” a case that has shaken public trust and drawn international scrutiny, the BBC reported. 

The Athens Criminal Court began hearing the case against the defendants – two Greeks and two Israelis – who face misdemeanor charges of violating the telecommunications secrecy laws. 

If found guilty, they could face a maximum sentence of five years in prison. 

The hearings come three years after a wiretapping scandal that involved Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP) and its targeting of the mobile phones of politicians, journalists, judges, and senior military officers with spyware. 

The spyware, known as “Predator,” was marketed by Intellexa and can infiltrate a phone to access messages, photos, and remotely activate the microphone or camera. 

Three of the defendants are former executives of Intellexa. 

The scandal began in 2022 when Nikos Androulakis, leader of the opposition Pasok party, discovered that his phone had been targeted by the spyware.  

Around the same time, Greek investigative journalist Thanasis Koukakis disclosed that he had been monitored first by Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP) and later by Predator through eight text messages, Agence France-Presse added. 

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis denied that the government was using the spyware, insisting that Predator was doing the targeting. But critics claimed that the overlap between Predator’s targets and those monitored by EYP suggested a coordinated surveillance effort. 

Mitsotakis and his cabinet came under increased scrutiny for the government’s lack of willingness to probe who was spying on ministers and army officials. None of the serving ministers or military officers who were reportedly affected filed complaints or were called to testify. 

The scandal resulted in the resignations of EYP chief Panagiotis Kontoleon and Grigoris Dimitriadis, Mitsotakis’s nephew and top aide. That year, Greece also passed a new law legalizing spyware use for state security under strict conditions, which critics say deprives citizens of the right to learn if they have been surveilled. 

In 2024, the country’s supreme court concluded there was “clearly no connection” between the spyware and officials, a finding that watchdogs and opposition politicians have dismissed as political. 

According to the Hellenic Data Protection Authority, at least 87 people were targeted by Predator, 27 of whom were simultaneously under EYP surveillance.  

Analysts say the scandal casts doubt over Greece’s commitment to transparency and accountability within the European Union: The European Parliament called for strict rules to prevent the use of spyware, singling out Hungary, Poland, Greece, Spain, and Cyprus for allegedly using such software.