Report: Greek Government Familiar With Spyware Seller

Photo: Reuters

The Facts

  • Investigative media outlet Inside Story published this week a report indicating that the Greek government covertly sent millions of dollars to a company that sells the illegal Predator spyware.

  • While officials have tried to present the state's supplier Krikel and the spyware vendor Intellexa as unrelated entities, the two companies had at least one transaction in July 2020 via the European payment system (SEPA).


The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

The reports of the Greek government conducting surveillance at the request of Prime Minister Mitsotakis are shameful and baseless lies. There is no evidence to support these allegations, and no one in Greece can truly believe that the Prime Minister would track fellow government officials. If wiretapping has taken place, it was to surveil outside threats to the country and certainly not for internal targets by the state's intelligence agency.

Establishment-critical narrative

Do not let Prime Minister Mitsotakis fool you. With his rogue attempts at wiretapping political opponents or covering up an autonomous intelligence service, he has failed to protect Greek democracy. On the surface, he appears to want to modernize surveillance for external threats — but behind closed doors, Mitsotakis is doing unscrupulous business as usual.


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