The case related to the export licenses of the Predator is at the stage of disciplinary proceedings, after the completion of the EDE. At this stage, the process is covered by “absolute secrecy”, according to the civil service code. THE Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Gerapetritis forwarded a document to the Parliamentin response to a related question addressed to him by 16 SYRIZA MPs, with which they requested to be informed when the result of the Sworn Administrative Examination ordered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from November 16, 2022, will be made public, “because responsible General Directorate for Economic Diplomacy were given export licenses for Intellexa SA company’s dual status products”.

As the Minister of Foreign Affairs George Gerapetritis states in his written response, “after the completion of the EDE for the licensing procedures for the export of dual-use products by the B6 Directorate, the case is at the stage of disciplinary proceedings. As it has not been specifically determined, the absolute secrecy of the EDE of article 127 par.5 of the Civil Service Code (law 3528/2007) is not lifted by the submission of a reasoned report by the person who carried it out, on the contrary, it is maintained until disciplinary action is taken against the employee for against whom disciplinary responsibilities arise, based on the findings of the EDE and until the case is placed on file”.

SYRIZA MPs, on July 24, 2023, submitted a question to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Justice in which they referred to the publications that “have revealed the facilities provided by the Mitsotakis government to Intellexa and Krikel for the export of the Predator from Greece, with permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.

They reminded that since April 2023, SYRIZA with the signatures of 41 MPs had addressed a request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to give them the conclusion of the Sworn Administrative Examination of the Ministry, regarding the way in which the Predator export licenses were given to Intellexa and related company Krikel, “without this request being answered by the Ministry”.

Among the questions raised by the SYRIZA MPs was “when will the conclusion of the Sworn Administrative Examination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs be made public regarding how the Predator export licenses were given to Intellexa and its related company Krikel”.

To the question of the SYRIZA MPs, a response document has been sent by the Minister of Justice, George Floridis, who states that “from the moment the judicial authorities took over, we have to wait for the results of their investigations, without judging the way they are conducted, as, in accordance with the constitutional mandate of article 26 of the Constitution which enshrines the principle of separation of powers, the Minister of Justice does not interfere in the work of administering Justice”.

In his document, Giorgos Floridis reminds us that in accordance with the fundamental principles of independence and self-administration of justice (Articles 26, 87, 88 and 90 of the Constitution), the judicial authorities carry out their work with absolute independence and are exclusively responsible for assessing the information and data that come to their knowledge, their possible utilization and of course their further actions. “Therefore it is certain, and no one should have the slightest doubt, that the judicial and prosecuting authorities intervene directly within the framework of their -by law- powers in order to investigate the commission of a criminal act”, the Minister of Justice underlines. Also, it is clear, emphasizes George Floridis, that the Judiciary is well aware of the legislative framework and provides the safest guarantees in the exercise of its constitutionally distinct and independent judicial work.

In the question submitted by the SYRIZA MPs, they called on the government to answer whether it “intends to take other initiatives to investigate the case of the surveillance of citizens by the Predator malware, in addition to the actions taken by the judiciary and the Independent Authorities, given that the report of the Personal Data Protection Authority, demonstrates that the use of malicious software has much larger dimensions than various publications had initially revealed. They also asked for information “on what actions the government intends to take in order to control and prevent new attempts to mass infect citizens’ mobile phones with malicious software.”