The main opposition PASOK party has strongly criticized Supreme Court deputy prosecutor Achilles Zisis’ decision to dismiss the criminal complaints filed by its leader, Nikos Androulakis, and journalist Thanasis Koukakis, calling it “one more link in the chain of cover-up” of the wiretapping case. The legal action had been directed at the individual whose prepaid bank card was allegedly used to pay for SMS messages infected with the Predator spyware, which were sent to the complainants.
“Zisis adopted the imaginative scenario that the card was activated by an ‘unknown’ individual without the PIN code and was used, without the owner’s knowledge, to purchase messages infected with the Predator spyware, which were then sent to former prime minister Antonis Samaras, the PASOK leader, and government ministers. He accepted this claim without any technical or banking analysis,” PASOK said in a statement on Wednesday.
In the same statement, PASOK asserted that institutions and the rule of law were “tarnished” during the tenure of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The party urged him not to evade responsibility once again for the wiretapping scandal during his interview with Alpha TV on Wednesday evening.
In a report made public earlier on Wednesday, Zisis said that the accused individual, Emilios Kosmidis, a supermarket employee, “has no connection to the allegations, as a third party used the card, recharged it, and made the two transfers.” He further clarified that no link was found between the accused and any individual from the National Intelligence Service (EYP).
Regarding the charges of espionage and violation of the confidentiality of telephone communications at a felony level, as mentioned in the complaints by Androulakis and Koukakis, Zisis explained that these provisions of the criminal code do not apply, as they would require an actual threat to the free functioning of democracy or national security.