By Magda Panoutsopoulou
ATHENS (AA) - Greek media said Wednesday that a female suspect linked to a spyware scandal has been arrested.
The suspect’s identity has not been made public but reports pointed to an employee and shareholder of Intellexa, a company that sells tracking software.
Police from the cybercrime unit raided the home of the suspect and confiscated computers, hard discs, and other hardware.
The raid was in the Athenian southern suburb of Glyfada but the exact date was not disclosed.
Reports said there have been 12 similar operations connected with the case which was ordered by the prosecutor investigating the tapping scandal of telephones belonging to Greek politicians, journalists, and businessmen.
Last month, police raided the Athens offices of Intellexa and Krikel which sells Israeli-made Predator spyware, which was allegedly used in surveillance operations by Greece’s intelligence services.
- Surveillance scandal
On Aug. 8, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged that opposition politician Nikos Androulakis was wiretapped by Greece’s intelligence agency but denied knowledge of the operation.
The scandal emerged Aug. 4 when Panagiotis Kontoleon, then-head of the National Intelligence Service (EYP), told a parliamentary committee that the intelligence agency had been spying on financial journalist Thanasis Koukakis.
Kontoleon, along with the general secretary of the prime minister’s office, Grigoris Dimitriadis, resigned Aug. 5.
A parliamentary probe was launched after Androulakis complained to top prosecutors about an attempt to hack his mobile phone with the Predator spyware.
Previously, the Documento newspaper on Nov. 6 published a list of 33 people who were allegedly spied on by the EYP on direct orders of Dimitriadis, including Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, Deputy Defense Minister Nikolaos Chardalias, Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis, Labor Minister Kostis Hatzidakis, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras, former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, former Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis, and former National Security Adviser Alexandros Diakopoulos.
On Dec. 3 the paper said the EYP, which directly operates under Mitsotakis, also wiretapped Chief of General Staff Konstantinos Floros, Chief of Land Forces Charalambos Lalousis, and General Director of Defense Investments and Armaments Thodoris Lagios.
Opposition parties have blamed Mitsotakis for the scandal and called for his government to hold snap elections, something he rejects.
The European Commission and European Parliament are closely monitoring developments related to the scandal.