The completion of the investigation into the phone surveillance complaints was announced by the prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Georgia Adelini, who also initiated the upgrade of the investigation and the assignment to the deputy prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Achilleas Zisis.

According to the announcement:

• The investigation by the Justice Department did not reveal any connection between the NIS or any other state agency (Hellenic Police or Anti-Terrorism Agency) with the Predator malware and the alleged illegal surveillance of politicians, state officials, journalists, etc.
• The case regarding the NIS, other state agencies and natural persons who served in critical positions is filed both by the deputy prosecutor Achilleas Zisis, who submitted a 300-page opinion, and by the Supreme Court prosecutor herself who agreed with the opinion of Zisis.
• Due to the (more lenient) law that was passed in 2019 under the SYRIZA government, four persons, representatives of companies that were involved in one way or another with the malicious software, are being referred to trial for a misdemeanor. These are the four who had been summoned to explain themselves before a judge as suspects, that is, Ioannis Lavranos, Sara Aleksandra Hamu, Tal Jonathan Dilian and Felix Bitzio.
• The arraignment, as explained in the prosecutor’s announcement, is only for the misdemeanor of violation of telephone privacy, because the more favorable law prevails, since offenses of this type are now felonies.

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At the same time, as emphasized in Mrs. Adelini’s announcement, in the context of the investigation three independent authorities were involved in addition to the judiciary:

In particular, as stated in the announcement, the Personal Data Protection Authority, the ADAE (Communications Privacy Authority) and the National Transparency Authority, which conducted investigations and on-site inspections of public bodies: the Ministry of Protection of Citizen (Hellenic Police), National Intelligence Service (NIS), as well as to companies and submitted their reports and findings.

Dozens of witnesses, politicians, journalists, representatives of mobile phone companies, Commanders and Deputy Commanders and other members of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) were examined over the last 10 years, members of the Communications Privacy Assurance Authority (ADAE) and the National Transparency Authority (NAA), Senior Officers of the Hellenic Police, the Directorate of Information Management and Analysis, Directorate of Finance Headquarters, etc., in recent years, as well as the Directorate of Electronic Crime Prosecution, in total, more than forty (40) witnesses.

A 300-page report was submitted by the prosecutor Achilleas Zisis, detailing all the actions. Among other things, the expert opinions conducted, the requests for judicial assistance submitted to the USA and Switzerland and answered, and a detailed report on the actions of the judiciary in conjunction with other independent or state authorities.

Finally, it is noted that for the prosecutor Vasiliki Vlachou, who was responsible for the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the time, the disciplinary investigation carried out by the Supreme Court resulted in her discharge, which was duly approved.

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