Greek Intelligence Service Admits Spying on Journalist - Sources

By George Georgiopoulos

ATHENS (Reuters) - The head of Greek intelligence told a parliamentary committee his agency had spied on a journalist, two sources present said, in a disclosure that coincides with growing pressure on the government to shed light on the use of surveillance malware.

The committee's closed-door hearing last week was called after the leader of the socialist opposition PASOK party lodged a complaint with top court prosecutors over an attempted bugging of his mobile phone with surveillance software.

PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis made his complaint amid growing concern among European Union officials about spyware merchants and the use of surveillance software.

At the July 29 hearing, Panagiotis Kontoleon, chief of the EYP intelligence service, told parliament's institutions and transparency committee that his service had spied on Thanasis Koukakis, a financial journalist who works for CNN Greece, two lawmakers present at the hearing told Reuters.

He admitted the surveillance, absolutely, one of the lawmakers present at the hearing told Reuters on Wednesday, declining to be identified because the meeting was private.