Mitsotakis denies prior knowledge of phone tapping of Androulakis, pledges reform, tight oversight of EYP

By George Gilson

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis denied prior knowledge of the phone tapping by the EYP National Intelligence Service of European Parliament deputy and current centre-left PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis during a three-month (September to early December, 2021) that covered the entire PASOK leadership race and stopped two days after Androuolakis won.

Surveillance 'legal' but 'a political mistake'

Hospital doctors union prez.: "We'll see" what happens in the fall

The PM stressed that the tapping was legal, as it was approved by the competent prosecutor attached to EYP [appellate court prosecutor Vasiliki Vlachou], but that it was a "political mistake".

He declared that he never would have permitted the action had he been briefed, although in accordance with a law passed by the ruling majority shortly after New Democracy was elected in 2019, the prime minister's office has direct jurisdiction over and oversight of EYP, a function that was performed by his chief of staff and right-hand-man, Dimitris Grigoriadis, who resigned on 5 August at the PM's request in order to assume the political responsibility for the affair.

Mitsotakis asserted that he was informed of the tapping just a few days ago, and that it ceased two days after Androulakis' was elected PASOK-KINAL leader by the party's base, "as the law provides", suggesting that it is illegal to conduct surveillance of a political party leader.

No explanation of why Androulakis' phone was tapped

The PM offered no explanation of the causes that led EYP to surveille a Greek politician and on what grounds the prosecutor approved it, and he blamed the intelligence service only for "underestimating the political dimension...

Continue reading on: