Speaking at a public event hosted by the Eteron think tank in Athens on Thursday on spyware, democratic oversight and the rule of law, Deibert placed Greece’s Predator scandal within a broader international trend in which governments are increasingly relying on private surveillance vendors while accountability mechanisms struggle to keep pace.
Citizen Lab, the University of Toronto-based research center internationally known for exposing digital surveillance operations, has spent years investigating what Deibert described as the “mercenary spyware industry” — a transnational ecosystem of companies selling governments tools capable of compromising mobile devices, tracking targets and conducting covert surveillance.
While spyware vendors often argue such technologies are necessary to combat terrorism and serious crime, Citizen Lab’s findings have repeatedly shown journalists, opposition figures, activists and human rights defenders among those targeted across multiple jurisdictions.
“The investigative journalists who worked on this case in Greece are real heroes,” Deibert said, arguing that domestic reporting efforts played the decisive role in bringing the scandal into public view.
The Greek case emerged internationally after revelations that Predator spyware had been used against journalists, political figures and individuals linked to state institutions, triggering investigations at both national and European level and placing Athens under scrutiny over transparency and democratic oversight.
Deibert recalled that Citizen Lab’s involvement traces back to a 2021 joint investigation with Meta’s threat intelligence team into the targeting of an Egyptian politician and activist who had simultaneously been infected with Pegasus and Predator spyware. During that work, researchers identified indicators pointing toward activity in Greece and a possible operational presence linked to Intellexa, the spyware consortium associated with Predator.
At the time, he said, the ownership structures and operational networks behind Predator remained opaque. But as technical evidence and domains connected to activity in Greece became public, the scale of the case gradually emerged.
Deibert also highlighted cooperation with Greek data protection authorities, saying efforts to preserve telecommunications records and identify possible surveillance targets helped expand the investigation.
He linked developments in Greece to wider European and international cases, pointing to Mexico, where Pegasus was allegedly used against journalists and civil society figures; Spain, where politicians and family members were reportedly targeted; and Poland, where surveillance revelations triggered political and legal fallout.
Europe, he argued, remains particularly attractive for surveillance firms because establishing operations within EU jurisdictions confers legitimacy and commercial credibility.
The Athens event also brought renewed criticism of Greece’s handling of the affair from lawyers involved in representing alleged spyware victims.
Zacharias Kesses, legal representative for several individuals linked to the Predator case, argued that despite the scale of revelations, institutional and judicial responses have failed to match the seriousness of the allegations.
He described the affair as one of the clearest examples in Europe of delayed accountability despite extensive public evidence and claimed that Greece is now entering the fifth year of what he characterized as an ongoing effort to contain the political fallout.
“The only thing achieved so far is the postponement of accountability,” Kesses said, arguing that delays do not eliminate the need for responsibility.
Former deputy chair of Greece’s communications privacy watchdog ADAE, lawyer Aikaterini Papanikolaou, focused on institutional safeguards and legal oversight, arguing that the scandal exposed not only legislative shortcomings but failures in the implementation of existing protections.
She questioned whether Greece’s current framework governing surveillance notifications and oversight mechanisms would withstand scrutiny before the European Court of Human Rights, particularly regarding the delayed notification of surveillance targets.
Closing the discussion, Deibert argued that the Greek case demonstrates how accountability processes can be prolonged but not indefinitely avoided.
Even when governments opt for silence or delay, he said, investigative journalism, independent institutions and civil society can keep pressure alive.
“Investigative journalism matters,” Deibert said. “Revealing what happens behind closed doors is essential to liberal democracy.”
