ATHENS, Feb 2: The Greek government said on Thursday that Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and several other ministers had their mobile phones tapped by unidentified persons for one year beginning before the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
The high-tech eavesdropping began in June 2004 and lasted until March last year, ministers told a news conference.
In addition to the prime minister, Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis, Defence Minister Spilios Spiliotopoulos, Public Order Minister George Voulgarakis and Justice Minister Anastassios Papaligouras also had their cellphones tapped, as did European Union environment commissioner Stavros Dimas and Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyannis, among others.
Given the cellphones targeted — most ministers use several — government spokesman Theodore Roussopoulos said the tapping had caused ‘no damage’ to Greece’s national interests.
According to the government, the tapping functioned through 14-16 ‘shadow’ cellphones, which were geared to activate whenever a target phone number, around 100 in total, either made or received a call.
The eavesdropping system operated through the local Vodafone mobile telephony service, and was discovered by Vodafone Greece CEO George Koronias when an investigation began into customer complaints involving lost text messages.
“The investigation discovered a special code in the software which permitted cellphone interception,” Papaligouras said. “This software was unknown to (Vodafone), as was the manner of its entry.”
The government released a list of 46 people targeted by the tapping network, including several private citizens, some foreign.
Other targets included a cellphone belonging to the United States embassy, and phones used by officials at the foreign ministry, the public order ministry, the merchant marine ministry, the Greek Navy general staff and senior officials at the defence ministry.
A member of the Socialist opposition who had served as defence minister prior to the March 2004 national elections was also targeted.
The authorities on Wednesday completed a preliminary inquiry into the affair, and will now begin a full judicial investigation.
But efforts to locate those responsible for the tapping were complicated by Vodafone’s decision to deactivate the software code before it informed the government.
“When we received word, there was no possibility to reach (the culprits) through these phones because the system had been deactivated,” Public Order Minister Voulgarakis said.
Greek centre-left opposition daily Ta Nea broke the story Thursday in a front-page article. —AFP
