According to the newspaper To Vima, representatives of Israeli businessman Tal Dilian, the founder of Intellexa, say they possess documents issued by Greek government agencies that effectively functioned as “letters of recommendation,” certifying the successful operational use of Predator in Greece. The documents were allegedly used to facilitate sales of the spyware to foreign governments.
The reported evidence is said to include Reference Certificates, Certificates of Good Performance and Government User Certificates issued during 2020 and 2021 as part of export licensing procedures for dual-use technologies through Greece’s Foreign Ministry. The documents allegedly portrayed Predator as a system that had been successfully deployed by Greek authorities and were used to support exports to countries including Sudan, Madagascar and Ukraine.
The allegations, if substantiated, would significantly deepen questions over the extent of the Greek state’s relationship with Intellexa, undermining longstanding claims that Predator’s activities in Greece were purely the work of private actors.
According to the report, Dilian’s side also claims to possess a 2020 cooperation agreement between Intellexa and Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP), as well as email correspondence with Greek officials concerning technical and administrative aspects of the software’s operation. None of these documents has been made public or independently verified.
The latest claims come after years of controversy surrounding Predator, a sophisticated spyware platform capable of covertly infiltrating mobile phones. Greece’s surveillance scandal erupted in 2022 after journalists, politicians and other public figures were found to have been targeted with the software, prompting investigations by domestic authorities and European institutions.
The revelations have triggered an immediate political backlash. Opposition party PASOK called on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government to clarify whether Greek ministries or state agencies issued certificates or reference letters for Predator and whether such documents were used by Intellexa to facilitate exports abroad. The party argued that the allegations, if true, would contradict the government’s position that Predator was a private commercial venture unrelated to state institutions.
Left-wing opposition parties Syriza and New Left likewise demanded further investigation and parliamentary hearings involving Dilian and former senior officials, arguing that the reported documents point to closer cooperation between the state and the companies behind Predator than previously acknowledged.
Separately, lawyer Zacharias Kesses, who represents victims of Predator surveillance, published details from what he says is a previously undisclosed internal administrative inquiry conducted by the Greek Foreign Ministry into the approval of Predator export licences. According to Kesses, the inquiry concluded that officials responsible for processing export applications failed to comply with the safeguards set out in EU Regulation 2021/821 governing dual-use goods. Specifically, the report allegedly found that authorities neglected to assess factors that the regulation explicitly requires to be considered before granting licences, including the risk of human rights abuses, the possibility that the technology could be used for internal repression, concerns over its ultimate end use and the potential for diversion.
Kesses further claimed that the inquiry documented verbal instructions originating from the office of then Foreign Ministry Secretary General Giannis Smyrlis directing officials to avoid delays and simplify the licensing process for Predator exports. According to his account, these instructions encouraged the acceleration of approvals despite the sensitive nature of the spyware and the legal obligations imposed by European export controls.
He also argues that, despite the findings of the internal inquiry, Smyrlis was never investigated over his role in signing off on Predator export licences and was not even called to testify as a witness. Instead, Kesses notes, Smyrlis was subsequently appointed Director General of the governing New Democracy party by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Kesses further highlights what he describes as the irony that, during Smyrlis’ tenure at the Foreign Ministry, export approvals were granted for the spyware that was later allegedly used to infect the phone of then Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, who was effectively his superior at the time.
Neither the Greek government nor the Foreign Ministry has publicly responded to the latest allegations. If confirmed, the claims are likely to renew calls for parliamentary and judicial scrutiny of one of Greece’s most politically sensitive surveillance scandals, including demands for Tal Dilian to testify before Parliament’s Committee on Institutions and Transparency.
