Greek Court Begins Trial in High-Profile Predator Spyware Scandal

A trial opens in Athens on Thursday, linked to one of the most high-profile surveillance cases in recent European history. Four individuals are facing misdemeanor charges for allegedly using the Predator spyware to monitor private communications.

The proceedings, taking place at the Athens

Single-Member Misdemeanor Court, come more than three years after reports first surfaced that the Predator spyware had been deployed to monitor at least 87 individuals — among them journalists, politicians, judges, and business executives. The spyware, developed by the company Intellexa, was allegedly used to compromise mobile devices and extract sensitive data without the users' knowledge.

This week’s trial focuses narrowly on the cases of investigative journalist Thanasis Koukakis and corporate executive Artemis Seaford. The four defendants — two Greek and two foreign nationals — are accused of unlawfully violating the confidentiality of communications, charges that are classified as misdemeanors under Greek law. Among the accused are Tal Dilian, a former Israeli intelligence officer and founder of Intellexa, his wife and business partner Sarah Hamu, Intellexa shareholder Felix Bitzios, and Greek businessman Yiannis Lavranos, owner of the security firm Krikel, which has close ties to Greece’s intelligence agency and national police.

The trial begins just a day after Greece’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority froze Lavranos’s bank accounts amid allegations of tax evasion and money laundering, further intensifying public scrutiny of the case.

Yet despite the gravity of the revelations — and the breadth of the alleged surveillance — the trial is proceeding with a strikingly limited scope. Missing from the courtroom are any charges related to the surveillance of senior government officials, military leaders, or any allegations of espionage. Also absent is any investigation into the possible involvement of the Greek government or its intelligence service, the EYP.

This limited legal action has fueled accusations of a coordinated cover-up. Although prosecutors originally conducted a detailed investigation into the spyware’s use, Greece’s Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office ultimately chose to indict only four individuals on misdemeanor charges, effectively shelving the wider state-level implications of the case. Key victims of the spyware campaign were not summoned to testify, no forensic examinations of their devices were ordered, and no senior officials identified as surveillance targets have sought legal recourse — despite being officially informed of the breach by the Hellenic Data Protection Authority.

Critics argue that the foundation for this institutional evasion was laid in 2022, when the Greek government, led by the center-right New Democracy party, attempted to frame the entire scandal as a private dispute, distancing itself from the affair. This stance was adopted even in the wake of high-profile resignations, including that of the EYP’s then-director Panagiotis Kontoleon and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Grigoris Dimitriadis.

Adding to the controversy is the legal framework under which the case is being tried. The charges are based on Greece’s 2019 Penal Code, which downgraded violations of communication privacy from felonies to misdemeanors. Although that change was reversed in 2022, the acts in question took place in 2020 and 2021 — meaning the more lenient version of the law applies. With statutes of limitation looming, legal experts and watchdog groups warn that this trial may be the final opportunity to pursue any form of justice in the Predator affair.

#ENGLISH_EDITION #PREDATOR #SPYWARE