London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Greek prosecutor slams unflattering comparisons to Belgium’s Qatargate probe  

Greek prosecutor slams unflattering comparisons to Belgium’s Qatargate probe  

Dogiakos hits out at criticism of Greece’s handling of wiretapping scandal investigation.
Greece’s Supreme Court prosecutor lashed out against media criticizing Greek judicial authorities by comparing them unfavorably with the Belgian investigators handling of the Qatargate scandal. He called for an extensive tax audit of media organizations.

“It is not possible for a section of the press, taking advantage of an essentially completely ineffective press law, to turn and vilify anyone who, in the exercise of his duties, does not act in accordance with its wishes, its suggestions and even its dictates,” Isidoros Dogiakos said late on Saturday in the general assembly of the union of public prosecutors.

The comments by Dogiakos come after sustained criticism — primarily by left-leaning news outlets and opposition politicians — of the judicial authorities in Athens for their handling of an ongoing probe of a Greek wiretapping scandal. That criticism has reached a crescendo in recent days, with comparisons to the relative speed and efficiency with which Belgian authorities have acted in their investigation of alleged corruption at the European Parliament.

“In the Qatargate scandal, the Belgian prosecutor was methodical and effective. Why hasn't the same happened in the Greek wiretapping case?” the news website news247.gr said in a December 15 article with photo of Dogiakos. 

Dogiakos suggested that some of the news operations "are not worthy to bear the once highly honorable title and status of newspaper or magazine editor," adding that they keep "secret their financial status on the basis of which they became publishers.”

“Perhaps, however, an extensive tax audit of these few will reveal many interesting facts about their professional activities,” the Greek prosecutor said.

Commentators and politicians have joined the chorus of criticism on social media, some of them echoing the slogan: “Bring on a Belgian prosecutor.”

“Belgium save us,” some others wrote, while Belgian investigative magistrate Michel Claise is becoming somewhat famous in Greece.

"How great would we be here in Greece, if we had the effectiveness of the institutions and prosecutors and the justice and political system of central Europe, of Belgium,” main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras said last week. "I am starting to envy this country."

Socialist leader Nikos Androulakis, speaking at the European Parliament on Tuesday, congratulated the Belgian authorities “who revealed the scandal as opposed to others who cover up scandals.”

The “Qatargate” probe, which has seen at least 16 house searches and four arrests, is inevitably compared to the handling of the Greek wiretapping scandal, which involves dozens of state officials, journalists and businesspeople allegedly been wiretapped with the use of state surveillance, as well as the malicious illegal spyware Predator. The conservative Greek government has been repeatedly accused of trying to cover up the scandal.

“It is not possible to mock and denigrate judicial and prosecutorial officials by comparing them to judges and prosecutors of foreign countries with different procedural systems against which, in their opinion, they are far inferior to foreign ones,” Dogiakos said.

The Greek judicial authorities have been criticized for focusing more on how the leaks end up in the press, rather than the scandal itself.

On Friday, it was revealed that another MEP, Georgios Kyrtsos, as well as investigative reporter Tasos Telloglou, who has been leading the revelations of the wiretapping scandal, have been under state surveillance. The revelation came after an audit was carried out by the Greek Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE), which visited the telecommunications company to check any surveillance order on the two numbers.

It was reported that Dogiakos tried to intervene and stop the audit of the authority. The prosecutor said he indeed contacted the telecommunications company and the Greek spy service during ADAE’s investigation, but claimed that he did not prevent the investigation, even though he does believe that the audit was not legal.

Kyrtsos was expelled from the ruling New Democracy party and was suspended from the European People’s Party earlier this year. He eventually left the EPP and joined Renew Europe.

According to officials, the surveillance of Kyrtsos was renewed nine times and took place both on his mobile phones and his landline.

Last Tuesday, four months after Greek prosecutors launched an investigation into the wiretapping scandal and the use of malicious spyware Predator and a year after the first snooping was revealed, police raided the offices of the companies involved in the purchase of spyware.

Prosecutors have also submitted official requests to the state spy service, asking it to confirm whether political figures, ministers and the heads of the armed forces were indeed under surveillance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×