Telephone tapping

Greek authorities say they have arrested two men at an airport in northern Greece who are wanted in neighboring Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on charges related to an illegal wiretapping scandal.

A large operation against protection rackets launched with simultaneous raids in different parts of the Greek capital on Thursday morning has so far resulted in 10 arrests, the Greek Police has said.

Bulgarian parliamentarians gave tough anti-terror legislation a green light in a series of votes on Wednesday and Thursday.

The changes give the police, army, prosecution and security services sweeping powers in terrorist alert cases to wiretap suspects and restrict civil rights.

Bulgarian lawmakers have passed on a final reading anti-terror legislation which boosts the role of security and law enforcement services in cases of a terror-related emergency.

The military will be authorized to detain suspects until the arrival of police in case of a terror-related emergency. 

Outgoing Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev has expressed concern at "secret information" that Bulgaria services may have obtained by wiretapping his convesations.

He has accused the authorities responsible for "unfounded wiretapping of high-profile statesmen" of having adopted a "practice of a totalitarian past that has been denied by the Bulgarian society."

The Supreme Court has ordered an investigation into claims by the Greek Communist Party (KKE) on Thursday that the telephones at its central headquarters in Perissos have been wiretapped, as it frequently experiences crossed lines, notably involving the office phones of other parties.

According to the Special Prosecution, SJO, the police officers standing trial attempted to cover-up their department's involvement in illegally listening in on thousands of conversations between politicians, activists, journalists and their associates.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has completed an investigation into an intelligence network by the Gülen Movement, under the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, within the police which wiretapped and placed secret cameras at the residences of a number of victims between 2008 and 2012.

By comparing log files on wiretapped telephone numbers contained in three separate digital systems, the Special Prosecution, SJO hopes to solve the mystery of who carried out the mass illegal surveillance in Macedonia, BIRN has learned from informed sources.

Macedonia's special prosecution office, SJO, says it expects an IT expert from the Swedish telecommunications company, Ericsson, to supply technical assistance to extract data on wiretapping activities from the headquarters of the secret police, UBK.

The SJO has been trying fruitlessly to obtain the complete data with a court order since last Wednesday.