Wiretapping: Why the Androulakis “debriefing” will remain on paper – 2024-04-19 01:30:16

^_«The president of PaSoK, Nikos Androulakis, although whenever the procedures for informing him are completed by ADAE, after the recent decision of the Council of Ministers, he will not receive a copy of his conversations that were intercepted in 2021 by EYP. And that’s because they have been destroyed, due to a change in the system of legal meetings of the secret services.” Speaking to “Vima”, an important official who is said to know in depth the background of the Androulakis case proceeds with this assessment.

He, however, adds that Mr. Androulakis can receive the document of the secret services with the rationale of his surveillance, which is in the digital file with all the relevant requests that the then EYP prosecutor Mrs. Vasiliki Vlachou. This file, subsequently, he had handed over – always according to him – to her successor judicial officer.

The officer of EL.AS. who was seconded to the EYP and signs the request to monitor the president of PaSoK remains in critical services of the Police and participates in various investigations

However, the relevant document should also have been preserved in the competent services of the EYP, which had requested the relevant registration. The recent declassification law specifies that the product of surveillance (i.e. the recorded conversations of the “target”) may be destroyed six months after the wiretapping of his conversations is complete, but documents explaining the reasons for the wiretapping must be preserved for years. Just as it happens in similar cases with the operation of the two legal meetings of the Greek Anti-Terrorist Service and the Directorate of Information Management and Analysis.

The two parameters

But going a step further, the same source argues that two important parameters must be taken into account:

• First, that Mrs. Vlachou, who has kept the Androulakis file electronically and monitored the requests for legal meetings, was one of the first to be targeted by the illegal “Predator” software, which seems to have a “bridge” with the EYP.
• Secondly, that the EL.AS officer. who was seconded to the EYP and signs the monitoring request of the president of PaSoK (and not only) and is checked for this cooperation of secret services and illegal software operators, remains in critical services of the Police and participates in various investigations.

At the same time, new questions are being raised about the progress of the judicial investigation into the case of wiretapping, since it seems that the Anti-Corruption Commission has not yet been asked to establish what the joint surveillance targets of EYP and Predator were in the period 2021-2022, in order to reveal new evidence for the specific common monitoring center. According to information, this number exceeds 40 people, including political figures (such as Mr. Androulakis), journalists and others. Although the delay in the search for this “common list” was allegedly one of the reasons that the case file was removed from the Athens First Instance Prosecutor’s Office, while there have also been related prompts from political figures.

The obstacles

In the meantime, following the relevant unanimous decision of the Plenary of the Council of State (StE), the procedures have been initiated to inform the president of the PASoK from the Communications Privacy Assurance Authority, regarding the file of his monitoring. In this process, there are expected to be delays, but also some bureaucratic – and not only – obstacles. However, the question is what exactly Mr. Androulakis will be informed of, who had recently stated that he was “looking for the reason” for my attendance.

First of all, it is established that, in all probability, he will not receive copies of his recorded conversations, from the two months of his monitoring by the EYP. And this is because, as the president of the Communications Privacy Assurance Authority had revealed in September 2022, Christos Rammos, during his testimony to the Investigative Committee on wiretapping, “there was a written notification to the ADAE from the EYP about the destruction of the Androulakis file”. However – as mentioned above – there seems to be a digital and not just a copy of the document that includes the reason for its monitoring.

As officials claimed, this document allegedly invoked requests from the secret services of two countries of the former Eastern bloc (now maintaining good relations with the US and the West). However, there is no official confirmation of the content of the specific document or if it is a pretext for monitoring the president of PaSoK.

The steps of Justice

1. The unanimous decision of the Plenary of the Council of State (StE) which acquitted the president of PaSoK Nikos Androulakis and ruled that the law by which he was forbidden to be informed about the reasons for his monitoring by the EYP is unconstitutional will be written down.

2. The decision of the CoE should immediately be delivered to the president of the Independent Communications Privacy Assurance Authority (IAEA), Christos Rammos, so that he may take cognizance of the judgment of the Supreme Court, in which he himself had served for decades.

3. After the delivery of the court decision, the Plenary Assembly of the ADAE will meet to take decisions regarding the procedure and the way of informing the president of the PASOK, who has already visited Mr. Rammos for this purpose.

4. The ADAE will request the “Androulakis file” from the EYP in order to fulfill the legal right of the person affected by the decision to monitor him.

5. The EYP, as long as it still has the specific information that will be requested, will deliver it so that it can finally be officially given by the Authority to Mr. Androulakis