Former Greek transport minister Christos Spirtzis has asked Greece’s Supreme Court to reopen the country’s politically explosive wiretapping investigation, submitting what he says is fresh evidence linking the state intelligence service to the Predator spyware scandal that has dogged Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government for years.
In a new legal filing submitted to the prosecutor’s office at the Areios Pagos, Greece’s highest civil and criminal court, Spirtzis argued that the archived investigation should be revived to examine possible espionage offenses and the alleged coordination between Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP) and operators of Predator, the powerful surveillance software that has been used against politicians, journalists and business figures across Europe.
The move threatens to reignite one of the most damaging controversies faced by Mitsotakis since taking office in 2019, at a time when rule-of-law concerns in Greece continue to draw scrutiny from European institutions and civil liberties groups.
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Spirtzis, a senior figure in the opposition Syriza party and a former minister under ex-prime minister Alexis Tsipras, also requested the recusal of senior prosecutor Konstantinos Tzavellas from any further involvement in the case, alleging bias and lack of impartiality.
The request cites a recent investigative report concerning decisions signed by Tzavellas during his tenure overseeing the intelligence service, as well as confidential testimony he reportedly provided to the Greek parliament during previous inquiries into the surveillance affair.
“At issue is not only a lack of objectivity, but direct personal involvement,” Spirtzis argued in his filing.
Central to his complaint is what he describes as evidence of a “single operational center” connecting EYP and Predator surveillance operations. Spirtzis claims that on November 15, 2021, he received a malicious text message containing a Predator infection link just 50 minutes after filing a parliamentary question to the prime minister regarding the activities of the intelligence service.
According to documents included in the submission, the text message referred directly to the subject matter of his parliamentary intervention and included a spoofed media link designed to infect his phone.
The timing, Spirtzis argues, points to coordination between state surveillance mechanisms and the spyware network.
The Predator scandal first erupted publicly in 2022 after reports revealed that journalists, opposition politicians and other public figures had been targeted with spyware or subjected to state monitoring. The controversy eventually forced the resignation of the head of the intelligence service and Mitsotakis’ nephew and chief of staff, although the government has repeatedly denied any connection to Predator operations.
Greek judicial authorities later archived major parts of the investigation, a move sharply criticized by opposition parties, digital rights organizations and some members of the European Parliament, who accused Athens of failing to fully investigate potential abuses of power.
Spirtzis now says newly submitted evidence undermines previous prosecutorial conclusions, including findings that allegedly dismissed the existence of sensitive encrypted communications on his mobile phone.
Speaking after the filing, the former minister framed the issue in stark political terms.
“Either the prime minister and the government were monitoring us, or their convicted associates are spies,” he said, describing the affair as “a dark period for the rule of law” in Greece.
His lawyer, Artemisia Papadaki, said the new filings demonstrate that “there are no dead ends in the legal system” and called on Greece’s top judicial authorities to act impartially and reopen the case.
