Privacy watchdog chief insists on agency’s independence

The head of the independent Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE) said on Tuesday that "no state body can exercise any form of preventive control or prudential supervision over the authority."

The announcement from Christos Rammos came after a Supreme Court prosecutor, Isidoros Dogiakos, opined that recent legislative changes introduced in the wake of the phone-tapping scandal mean that the ADAE no longer has the authority to respond to requests by citizens regarding whether they were put under surveillance for national security reasons.

Rammos said the "the disputed opinion" of the prosecutor "flagrantly violates the independence of the ADAE, which emanates directly from the constitution."

Opposition political parties were also critical of Dogiakos' opinion.

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras described Dogiakos' intervention as "a flagrant...