A significant decision is expected to be issued today, Thursday, by the Single-Member Court of Misdemeanors of Athens. This concerns the decision in the trial for the high-profile surveillance case involving the illegal Predator spyware, which has been ongoing since last September and is now reaching the final verdict.
Wiretapping trial: Prosecutor recommends conviction of all 4 defendants
The court prosecutor, Dimitris Pavlidis, recommended that all four defendants be found guilty: Tal Dilian, Sara Hamou, Yannis Lavranos and Felix Bitzios, for charges of interference with personal data archiving systems, violation of telephone communication confidentiality and verbal conversation secrecy, and illegal access to information systems or data. The four defendants, according to the indictment that brought them before the Single-Member Court of Misdemeanors, are connected to the companies involved in the case, Intellexa and Krikel.
Specifically, Felix Bitzios and Sara Hamou are alleged to be legal representatives and managers of Intellexa and its affiliated companies, including Krikel. Tal Dilian, an Israeli businessman, is attributed as the founder of the same company and “exercising de facto control over it,” while Yannis Lavranos is accused of “also exercising real control over Intellexa and its affiliated companies, including Krikel.”
According to the indictment against the four defendants, they are charged with jointly committing, through multiple acts constituting a continuous crime, the offenses for which they stand trial at the Athens Single-Member Court of Misdemeanors, in Athens during the period from summer 2020 until the end of 2021.
According to the indictment, the defendants are charged with successfully installing the Predator spyware in two cases: those of Artemis Seaford and journalist Thanasis Koukakis. For 114 additional cases, including those of Nikos Androulakis and Christos Spirtzis, they are accused of attempting to install it. During the high-profile hearing process, numerous witnesses testified, over 30, who were targets of the spyware, such as Nikos Androulakis and Christos Spirtzis, persons connected to the involved companies including an Intellexa employee in Greece, or state officials who participated in the investigations, such as the head of the National Transparency Authority, Alexandra Rogkakou, and the former president of the Authority for Communication Security and Privacy, Christos Rammos.
Prosecutor Dimitris Pavlidis in his recommendation sought the conviction of all four defendants, but didn’t stop there. As is known, the investigation conducted by then Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Achilleas Zisis, concluded that there was no connection between the illegal spyware and the National Intelligence Service. However, according to the prosecutor of the Athens Single-Member Court of Misdemeanors, the hearing process revealed that the spyware is not sold to private individuals, but to state services. In fact, the prosecutor characterized as enlightening the testimony of Intellexa employee Panagiotis Koutsios, who mentioned that during software presentations abroad, he entered government buildings, mainly in African countries.
Use of Predator “constitutes a threat to democratic governance”
The prosecutor noted that the use of Predator violates the applicable legal framework in Greek territory, “gives power to people who shouldn’t have it” and “constitutes a threat to the functioning of democratic governance,” adding that any use by state services should serve as a wake-up call. Mr. Pavlidis also made pointed reference to the fact that there is observed reluctance among surveillance targets – “high-ranking individuals,” as he mentioned – to provide their phones for inspection, appoint lawyers, and proceed with complaints.
After completing the prosecutor’s conviction recommendation, the following sessions of the Athens Single-Member Court of Misdemeanors began with pleadings from prosecution support and defense attorneys, and the court’s decision is now awaited. From the prosecution support side, the lawyers representing Predator victims, the court was asked not only for the conviction of the four defendants, but also for the transmission of trial proceedings to prosecutorial authorities, in order to examine persons who testified in court and to broaden the indictment and pursue new prosecutions at the felony level.
“It is terrifying that the use of Predator was characterized as a scandal for two reasons. First because the use of such a dangerous tool was allowed in Greece, but mainly for what followed – the complete coordination of defendants, state and institutions to silence the truth. Today, all the political figures who were trapped should be parties to the trial as prosecution support, as should the State, and the burden should not have fallen on a journalist and a lawyer who dared to show the naked emperor,” noted among other things the prosecution support attorney representing Thanasis Koukakis, Artemis Seaford and other victims, such as Zacharias Kesse, in his pleading. Now, the final verdict of the court is awaited.
