The wiretapping case had a “happy ending” for the National Security Service and the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, since the Supreme Court announced that it will only prosecute four private persons for misdemeanours. Here are all the steps that the investigation failed to take.
by Eliza Triantafillou / Tasos Telloglou
Part 6 - The Predator programmer who knows everything but was never asked anything
In March 2017, along with six other Israeli businessmen, Rotem Farkas founded Cytrox, the company that developed the infamous Predator spy software, in Skopje. In 2018, Cytrox was acquired by Intellexa, a company owned by Tal Dillian, a former commander of a select technology unit of the Israeli Defense Forces, with Rotem Farkas remaining in the group. In the second half of 2020, Rotem Farkas' professional obligations on behalf of Intellexa lead him to decide to move to Paleo Faliro, a suburb of Athens.
According to people who met with Rotem Farkas during the months of his stay in Greece and wished to remain anonymous, he claimed that he came to Greece at the invitation of the Greek government and after they had agreed to use the company's software, that he had met with various government officials and that he had received assurances from the Greek government that they would pass a law to legalize the use of spyware. This published story was at the disposal of the Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, but Rotem Farkas was never called to testify, although confirmed media investigations have shown that he knew all about the company's first steps in Greece and its partners here.
In her statement, Supreme Court prosecutor Georgia Adilini argues that Greece is the only country in the European Union where there has been such a thorough prosecutorial investigation into the use of spy software. This is not true. Similar investigations have been carried out in Spain, France, Hungary and recently an investigation was reopened in Poland, after the election of a new government and the change of leadership of the Judiciary. As for the adjective "thorough", perhaps we are speaking a different language with the prosecutor.
***
Comments
Post a Comment