A lawsuit over the trapping of his telephone device with the spyware Pegasus, in October 2022 and March 2023, was filed with the Prosecutor's Office of First Instance by journalist and former MEP, Stelios Koulouglou.
The former MEP, who was accompanied by his lawyer, Zacharias Kesses, with his lawsuit turns against those responsible for the Israeli manufacturing company of the software, to whom he attributes offenses at the felony and misdemeanor level.
The complainant states in his case file that his telephone device was demonstrably trapped “with the spyware PEGASUS, of the company NSO”. He also emphasizes that: “I used this device during my term as a member of the European Parliament and, in particular, during the period in which I participated as a substitute member of the European Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of the spyware Pegasus, Predator and other similar surveillance software (PEGA Committee). The breach of my device was established following a specialized forensic examination (forensic analysis) carried out by the internationally recognized Citizen Lab of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. This examination showed that my device was successfully infected with the spyware Pegasus on, or around, 21 October 2022, as well as again on 6 and 7 March 2023”.
The lawsuit underlines that the infection coincides in time with particularly important phases of the work of the PEGA Committee, “a fact that gives the present case particular gravity and makes its full investigation necessary”.
The lawsuit concerns the offenses of violating the confidentiality of telephone communication and oral conversation, illegal access to an information system or to data, as well as violation of the law on personal data.
As the journalist and former MEP states, “with the installation and operation of the Pegasus software on my device, the perpetrators intervened without right in the information system and in the filing systems of personal data that it contained, gaining knowledge of and access to almost all of my personal data, such as communications, contacts, photographs, calendars, documents, geolocation data and other data that were stored or transmitted through the device. Furthermore, these data also included special categories of personal data, such as health data, but also data concerning my professional and political activity as a member of the PEGA Committee of the European Parliament”.
He also emphasizes that “At the same time, having the ability to activate at any moment the camera of my mobile phone, they acquired the ability to monitor every moment of my private life. In addition, this illegal processing was objectively capable of creating a risk to the free functioning of the democratic system, given that it took place during the period of my participation in the work of the PEGA Committee of Inquiry, which had as its mission the investigation of the illegal use of spyware within the European Union. The ability to access communications, documents and information related to the work of the Committee was objectively capable of affecting the independent exercise of parliamentary duties, the free investigation of cases of public interest and, by extension, the functioning of democratic institutions”.
In a statement as he was leaving the prosecutor’s office, Mr. Koulouglou stressed that the issue of wiretapping does not concern a few but all citizens. As he said, “it is very unpleasant for one’s personal life to be monitored, which is the last refuge of man”.
As he noted, “Those responsible included in the lawsuit are being criminally investigated in other European countries as well. I hope the Greek justice system will do its job”.
The lawyer Zacharias Kesses said that the lawsuit concerns a series of felony acts, while he noted that despite the fact that the case of Koulouglou’s surveillance was known, “no one dealt with it”.