Former head of intel service points to wire-tapping of privatization fund chief in 2016; then PM Tsipras briefed over case

The former head of Greece’s national intelligence service (EYP), Yannis Roubatis, on Wednesday reportedly told members of a parliamentary fact-finding committee that a 2016 wiretap order – targeting the director of the country’s privatization fund at the time – was made known to then prime minister Alexis Tsipras.

Roubatis’ otherwise closed-door alleged testimony was widely circulated in the local press almost immediately after he finished answering deputies’ questions.

The fact-finding committee was established earlier this month in the wake of a wire-tapping furor involving the surveillance of current PASOK-KINAL party leader Nikos Androulakis last year, before he was elected to the party’s helm, although he was – and remains – an elected European Parliament deputy. At least one local investigative journalist was also placed under surveillance by EYP, with at least one high-ranking prosecutor, among others, signing off on the wire-tapping warrants.

The development, as conveyed by press reports, caused a firestorm of political reverberations hours later, with the former head of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, Stergios Pitsiorlas, saying he will file a lawsuit against Roubatis. What’s noteworthy in the latter’s case is the fact that he was elevated by Tsipras and appointed as deputy economy and development minister during the latter’s second government.

Nevertheless, Roubatis afterwards referred to a “recital of disinformation” and the “circulation of fabricated excerpts” of his same-day testimony.

“What I said was that I briefed Alexis Tsipras, in early 2016; he told me to proceed as normal, and if necessary, send evidence that will arise to the justice system. I also stressed that I did not again discuss this (with Tsipras) because I had all the necessary directions to proceed with legal steps,” was Roubatis’ statement after giving his testimony.

He also said Tsipras at the time did not delve into the “substance of the case, and moreover, he didn’t use me as a sacrificial lamb.”

His latter statement referred to the fact that current PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis accepted the resignation of the intelligence service chief once the wiretap order against Androulakis was confirmed. His chief of state, Grigoris Demetriadis, also resigned in the wake of the furor.