The International Press Institute (IPI) today welcomes the recent criminal convictions handed down by a Greek court to four individuals from surveillance firm Intellexa whose Predator spyware was used to illegally surveil Greek journalist Thanasis Koukakis.
The first-instance prison sentences, delivered in an Athens court on 26 February, provide long-sought but partial justice for one of the most prominent cases of spyware surveillance against a journalist in Europe in recent years, and follow a years-long campaign for accountability by IPI and other press freedom groups.
According to IPI monitoring, this is also thought to be the first case anywhere in the world of individuals in the commercial spyware sector being criminally charged and convicted of marketing, distributing and using spyware which was used to illegally surveil a member of the press – marking a major step forward for accountability for the abuse of spyware technologies globally.
The surveillance of Koukakis was part of a wider wiretapping and spyware scandal in 2022 which became known as the “Greek Watergate”, involving the targeted and coordinated surveillance of more than 80 people, including government ministers and military officials.
On Thursday, the court convicted four individuals from Intellexa, the private company at the heart of the scandal, with violating the confidentiality of telephone communications and illegally accessing personal data and conversations using Predator.
The businessmen, all founders, executives or shareholders in the companies involved, were each sentenced to 126 years in prison, of which eight years must be served. All defendants plead not guilty. The first-instance verdict will be appealed.
IPI Executive Director Scott Griffen said: “This verdict is a major legal victory which provides accountability and justice for the illegal surveillance of a respected journalist and IPI member Thanasis Koukakis. We hope this ruling will be upheld on appeal and IPI will continue to monitor the case closely. This is a win not only for all those who pushed for justice, but also for the Greek investigative media community, who have fearlessly documented the surveillance scandal and its implications in Greece in recent years, facing abusive lawsuits in doing so.
Griffen added: “The illegal surveillance of journalists using tools like Predator and Pegasus continues to pose a severe threat to press freedom and journalist safety globally. This ruling boosts efforts to hold those responsible to account, but more needs to be done – IPI continues to work with our members and partners around the world to document spyware attacks on journalists, support legal safeguards, and push for justice for abuses.”
Koukakis told IPI: “The decision of the Athens Single-Member Misdemeanor Court to impose exemplary punishment on the producers and distributors of the spyware and to refer the case for further investigation, including possible acts of espionage, marks a return to institutional normalcy. It reaffirms that no one is above scrutiny and that journalistic sources, democratic oversight, and the rule of law are not negotiable. Justice must now be pursued fully and without fear or favour. The rule of law is not anyone’s private domain.”
Surveillance case
In February 2022, it was revealed that Koukakis – a contributor to Greek investigative platform Inside Story as well as international media such as the Financial Times and CNBC – had his mobile phone surveilled for at least ten weeks in 2021 using Intellexa’s technology.
Predator is a highly invasive commercial spyware that, among other methods, utilises zero-click infections to target devices, allowing the attacker to gain full access to a target’s phone to extract data, contacts and messages, including those sent through encrypted applications, as well as turn on the microphone and camera. The infection was confirmed after a forensic analysis by digital security research centre Citizen Lab.
Source: IPI
