Greek court finds 4 guilty in major 2022 spyware scandal 

A Greek court has sentenced four people, including two Israelis, to prison over a major wiretapping scandal involving the illegal use of Predator software to target dozens of politicians, journalists, business leaders and military officials.

Dubbed the “Greek Watergate” by local media, the scandal engulfed Greece in 2022 following allegations by opposition party leader Nikos Androulakis and journalist Thanasis Koukakis that they had been under state surveillance via phone malware.

On Wednesday, a judge at the Second Single-Member Misdemeanour Court of Athens said the four were found guilty of “breaching the confidentiality of telephone communications”.

The defendants, who were not present at the court, were also found guilty of “tampering with a personal-data filing system … on a repeated basis”, as well as of “illegal access to an information system or data”, the judge said.

The four include Tal Dilian, a former Israeli soldier and founder of Intellexa, a company specialising in the supply of spyware, which marketed Predator in Greece. His business partner, as well as two former Greek executives of the company, were also on trial.

The court announced a combined sentence of 126 years and eight months, eight of which will have to be served, according to Greek media reports. The four will remain free pending an appeal requested by their lawyers.

The affair broke in early 2022 when Koukakis, an investigative journalist, discovered he had been wiretapped by the intelligence services (EYP) and that his phone had also been infected with Predator, a sophisticated software that makes it possible to infiltrate mobile phones, access messages and photos, and even remotely activate the microphone and camera.

The independent telecommunications privacy authority ADAE said Predator was used against more than 90 people.

Some of EYP’s targets during that period were the same people whose phones were infected with Predator, according to an experts’ report included in documents seen by the Reuters news agency.

Greece’s right-wing government has said it lawfully monitored the communications of Socialist party leader Nikos Androulakis. It has denied any wrongdoing.

The scandal prompted judicial investigations and forced the resignation of senior officials in Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s administration, including a senior aide to the conservative leader and the head of EYP, Panagiotis Kontoleon.

Mitsotakis later weathered a motion of no confidence in parliament over the case.