New investigative report claims Athens was center of Israeli spyware company

By Ahmet Genturk

ATHENS (AA) - A recent investigative report by the European Investigative Collaborations, involving 15 European news outlets, has alleged that Athens was the center of the Israeli Intellexa spyware company.

Greek Reporters United, providing new evidence, revealed that the central figure in the scandal was French businessman Stefan Salies, the head of Nexa, which collaborated closely with Intellexa to sell surveillance software, including the Predator, to illiberal regimes.

Salies admitted to working on plans for a research and development program for a surveillance system in Greece.

Additionally, the report implicates Salies in the export of illegal Predator surveillance software to Madagascar, with a recorded conversation dating back to May 2021, 18 months before the Greek government issued two export licenses for the Predator to Madagascar.

It also added that the Mitsotakis government played a crucial role in facilitating the export of illegal software to authoritarian regimes, indirectly contributing to the commission of serious human rights offenses.

"For similar software exports to authoritarian regimes, two were prosecuted in France on charges of 'complicity in torture'. In Greece, no person involved in the Greek Predator Gate (either as a company executive or as a public official) has been prosecuted or prosecuted," it said.

The report additionally alleges that the Greek government abusively and extra-institutionally employed spyware as a tool of espionage against political figures and journalists.

The main opposition SYRIZA party asserted in a statement that the new evidence affirms the government's collaboration with international arms traffickers to establish Intellexa's infrastructure in Greece.

The party also said it would persistently demand a thorough investigation into the case and urged accountability for the crimes committed by politicians, businessmen, and public officials.