Greek prime minister Kytriakos Mitsotakis has dismissed the Documento newspaper report claiming that more than 30 people, including ministers and businesspeople, were under state surveillance via phone malware installed by his government.
“There is absolutely no evidence and there is no connection with me,” Mitsotakis told Ant1 TV during a pre-recorded interview that aired on Monday (Greece time).
“[The article] was shame and disgrace,” Mitsotakis added, alleging that his main opposition leader and former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, “who wants to drag the country through the mire,” was behind the actions of Documento‘s publisher, Kostas Vaxevanis.
The prime minister warned that unless Vaxevanis can provide evidence for his claims, he is a “national danger”.
“Political confrontation cannot fall to this level. The prime minister cannot be accused of spying on his ministers without proof; there is no Greek who believes that I spied on my government ministers in my spare time.”
“I have never denied that there is a centre handling the predator malware, but that is very different to accusing the prime minister of orchestrating this surveillance,” Misotakis said, explaining that his government accepted from the very beginning of the saga that there was a problem.
Mitsotakis went on to say that he is determined to find the root cause of the issue even though it is not yet clear where “the mess” in regards to the wiretapping scandal stemmed from.
“I don’t know who is conducting the monitoring. We need to find out. It is not the EYP [National Intelligence Service] and I have no involvement,” he said, stressing that Greece will be the first country to explicitly prohibit the use of spyware.
Finally, the Greek PM challenged Tsipras to table a motion of no confidence in his government, reiterating that the next elections will be held in 2023 saying that “I will not be drawn into developments by professional extortionists”.
