“I was informed by the competent authority that there was a message, which was around May 2021, which actually trapped me. It was essentially a publication which was obviously trapped, which stated that I would withdraw and would not run for office in the 1st District of Athens,” said Migration and Asylum Minister Thanos Plevris, speaking on MEGA Weekend about the wiretapping and predator.
Initially Thanos Plevris referred to the country’s defense adequacy, emphasizing the importance of armaments, while regarding migration he expressed concern about potential increased flows due to the war situation in the Middle East.
“It is now becoming clear to everyone how important it is for the country to be armed, because many times some people say that armaments are a luxury. When you are in this neighborhood, armaments are necessary and the fact that we protect our brothers in Cyprus on one hand and have led many European Union countries to have a presence, but at the same time we create a shield for the protection of Greek territory, and even Bulgaria, shows that our country in the region is a strong military power.”
“In the flows section today, what concerns us much more is the part related to Libya. We have a huge reservoir that is pressing towards Europe and we have taken our measures in the whole section in a very difficult field. Border control in the Aegean is completely different and completely different in an open sea, like the Libyan Sea.”
On migration
Regarding the measures the government is ready to implement on migration, he said that asylum suspension is being considered. “There is no possibility, however, under any circumstances, that we will allow an instrumentalization, which is done by networks many times. What has worried us in the recent flows is that we are not only talking about Sudanese, who after all is a flow that one expects to be increased because they are in a war situation, it is that there were many illegal migrants from Bangladesh who fly to Libya and then try to cross our borders,” he said.
“From the control we did until this summer there will be about 1,000 asylum revocations from people who have either been involved in delinquent behavior or their countries no longer justify asylum, or we have information from the Greek Police that they pose a danger to public safety. Because what must be made clear is that asylum is not a permanent condition. That is, if someone comes and justifies with the behavior they have here, it can automatically be lifted,” he stated.
Regarding the economic implications of the war in the Middle East, Thanos Plevris noted that the government is monitoring the situation and is ready to support citizens.
Thanos Plevris: “I received a message & was trapped by predator”
Finally, regarding the wiretapping and the revelations of Tal Dilian on MEGA, Mr. Plevris questioned the credibility of these claims, given that they come from a convicted person who possibly follows a defensive line. “Now in reality an investigation by the Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office was completed. Obviously new evidence emerged from the hearing procedure that took place in court. We have serious sentences and corresponding return for other crimes to be examined. So, justice is doing its job.”
“Here appears one of the first-instance convicted, puts a claim which I don’t know if it had been said so far. Obviously this claim is also evaluated, always with the meaning that we are talking about a person whose claim is obviously also in the context of his defensive line.” “Because it is completely different for someone to claim and say that ‘I have nothing to do with it, we gave it somewhere’, whether this is governmental or anything, and completely different from what the prosecutorial investigation had initially concluded, but also the decision.”
As the minister revealed, in May 2021 he was also trapped with the Predator software, when he received a message referring to a publication about his political course. “I was informed by the competent authority that there was a message, which was around May 2021, which actually trapped me. It was essentially a publication which was obviously trapped, which stated that I would withdraw and would not run for office in the 1st District of Athens. I had received a message from a number that ultimately this number turns out not to exist and said ‘Thanos, they can’t say these things about you, that you won’t run’.”
“In my case it was an existing site, that is, obviously it had been trapped. As soon as I received the information, what I decided to do was to follow the development of the case, because the case was being investigated by Justice.”
“The political thorn has nothing to do with government involvement in surveillance. We have clarified this and the decision itself does not mention government involvement anywhere,” Mr. Plevris concluded.
