“The many incidents of attempted or even surveillance of mobile politicians and officials in Europe destroy the attempt to politically exploit similar cases in Greece”
On Friday, the government representative spoke of an attempt to use the attempted surveillance of Nikos Androulakis as a political tool Giannis Oikonomou.
“The many incidents of attempts or surveillances mobile politicians and officials in Europe destroy the attempt to politically instrumentalize similar cases in Greece” noted Mr. Economou.
As he said, “for those who, on the occasion of the case of the attempted monitoring of Mr. Androulakis’s mobile phone during the period when he was a candidate for the leadership of his party, and beyond, are trying to make judgments and conclusions, based on assumptions, inventions and improbable connections, without no documentation, to give the dimensions of a conspiracy, in order to slander the Government, I would like to inform you of the following: In recent years, at a pan-European level, there have been too many attempts to trap phones of political figures, through special software. Several times, in fact, the attempts paid off.”
In this context, the government representative cited specific examples:
- Already in 2018, a Citizen Lab report on the Pegasus software mentions incidents in 45 countries, including 1 in Greece. “I repeat 2018” he underlined.
- Yesterday, in a cable, the Reuters agency noted that the EU had identified evidence of an attempt to monitor Justice Commissioner Dittier Reyders.
- According to a report by the Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament, attempts or surveillance by malicious software are recorded on President Macron and at least 5 members of the French government, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and 14 ministers of the Finnish ministry officials external.
- The vice-president of the European Parliament, Mrs. Kaili, reported that she had a similar attack to that of Mr. Androulakis.
- It turns out that similar incidents have happened to MEPs of Hungary, Poland and probably Spain.
“So when the same or possibly even worse problem with Mr. Androulakis has been faced by Commissioner for Justice, French Prime Ministers, ministers, Finnish officials, Hungarian, Polish and maybe even Spanish MEPs, we all understand that the dimension of the problem is that technology also gives such possibilities and both governments and the EU are constantly trying to increase protection and security levels for everyone, citizens and politicians. And in this direction, our country is working and will work even more effectively” said the government representative, and added:
“All the rest, unless someone is unaware of or can factually dispute the above, are slanders, and insinuations with which those who treat them try to hide their inability to present a political proposal that answers the challenges of our time and the demands of the citizens ».
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