Wired: Ramos complained that he was personally and brutally intimidated by government officials

Threats and pressure against members of the independent authority investigating the wiretapping case were condemned by Christos Rammos, head of the Communications Privacy Protection Commission, before the European Parliament’s (LIBE) Committee on Civil Rights, Justice and Home Affairs.

“The ADAE led the investigations (about SS: wiretapping) together with the Personal Data Protection Authority. The two authorities were under a lot of pressure as they continued their investigations. The recent events at the end of September may certainly intensify concerns about respect for ADAE’s operational rules,” he said characteristically.

“In January, I was personally, publicly and brutally insulted and threatened by MPs and government officials when ATAE tried to inform the then official opposition leader,” Christos Ramos said.

“They are only investigating members of the supervisory board”

Referring to his two accomplices summoned by the judge, “For 18 months, the Greek judiciary has done nothing, never punished anyone for wiretapping. The same judge is rushing to prosecute two members of the supervisory board who were simply doing their duty.”

It should be pointed out that Katerina Papanikolaou (recently replaced in ADAE), Stephanos Kritsalis and two other members of the Authority were invited to give explanations on the merits of the person suspected of having committed a criminal act before the criminal judge of Amarousiou.

Presenter in the background of the judicial inquiry against the full members of the Authority, ordered by former Supreme Court lawyer Isidoros Togiakos, for leaking information to the media from the investigation carried out by the members of the Authority on certain mobile phones.

Ramos said the news of their summons was “shocking” and regretted that “some of Greece’s best officials have to go through all this”.

Overnight there were changes in the official gazette

Before the Commission’s MEPs, Christos Rammos also mentioned recent changes in the composition of the Authority’s Board of Directors.

“Developments over the past few days highlight concerns about interference with the independence of the AIAEA, as constitutionally mandated. […] ADAE recently conducted extraordinary investigations into the legality of wiretapping at EYP facilities. This process is still ongoing. On September 20, the Greek Parliament replaced 3 of the 7 members of ADAE’s Board of Directors. Their terms were due to expire from March 2022, but the relevant parliamentary committee had been inactive for 18 months and their replacements were put forward as “urgent”.

As he pointed out, “The replacement was decided by a small majority (16/27 or 2.96/5), in violation of the Constitution. The results of the referendum were published overnight in the Government Gazette with remarkable haste, indicating that the replacement could be linked to specific events. I cannot go into the details of that.”

During his hearing, the head of ADAE also mentioned the threats he received when he tried to inform the relevant committee of the parliament and after the information request submitted by the then leader of Syriza, Alexis Tsipras:

“I have been asked to testify before the Greek Parliament’s Institutions and Transparency Committee to report on our existing findings from the investigations.

This request was rejected by the chairman of the committee and the speaker of the parliament. Following this, in January, I was personally, publicly and brutally insulted and threatened by members of parliament and government officials when I tried to report ADAE to the then official opposition leader based on his own request under the current law (5002/). 2022 , Article 8, paragraph 6), to ascertain whether high-ranking public officials were targeted for surveillance by the state intelligence agency EYP”.

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