General Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office Grigoris Dimitriadis also resigned.
-Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis resigned amid the scandal related to the persecution of the head of the opposition party and a journalist by spying software, the Prime Minister's office said, reports AP.
The director of the National Intelligence Service, Panagiotis Kontoleon, resigned “after wrongdoing revealed in the legal oversight procedure,” the prime minister's office said, without specifying which procedures were improperly followed or who might have been the subject of the legal oversight. According to Greek law, any surveillance must be signed by a prosecutor. The National Intelligence Service, or EYP, reports to the Prime Minister's Office.
The prime minister's office did not state the reason for Dimitriadis' resignation. The official said that it was “related to the toxic climate that has developed around him. It has nothing to do with Predator (spyware) in any way, which neither he nor the government has anything to do with, as has been categorically stated.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the reasons for the resignation were not disclosed.
Last week, the head of Greece's socialist opposition PASOK party, Nikos Androulakis, filed a complaint with the country's Supreme Court prosecutor's office alleging that they tried to install the Predator spy software on his cell phone.
“I never expected that the Greek government would impeach me under surveillance with dark methods,” Androulakis said after resigning on Friday.
He also called on parliament to create an investigative committee to investigate potential political accountability for the wiretapping attempt. Government spokesman Yannis Oikonomou said that if such a request were formally submitted, “the government would approve it”.
Androulakis, who is also a member of the European Parliament, said he became aware of the Predator wiretapping attempt after the European Parliament's cybersecurity service informed him days before he filed the complaint on July 26.
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In April, Greek financial journalist Thanasis Koukakis reported that digital rights group Citizen Lab had his that from July to September 2021 his phone was a target of the Predator program. The Committee to Protect Journalists called for a “quick and thorough investigation”.
