The Athens Bar Association is considering filing an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding the decision of Supreme Court Prosecutor Konstantinos Tzavellas not to reopen the wiretapping case, while at the same time calling for his resignation.
At a press conference held yesterday by the Association, Nikos Alivizatos, emeritus professor of Constitutional Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, referred to two recent ECHR rulings that establish new European precedent for similar practices.
One concerns the case of former prosecutor Georgia Tsatani, who secured a ruling against Greece in Strasbourg, while the other concerns the Kanev case and the recent condemnation of Bulgaria, where the ECHR found that the country’s intelligence services were able to collect and retain data on citizens and organizations without any meaningful oversight.
PASOK president N. Androulakis has already appealed to the ECHR over the wiretapping case, with the hearing expected to take place sometime in 2026.
In the case of Ivan Kanev, the authorities refused to disclose whether any information existed against him, and the Bulgarian courts rejected his request without examining the material or determining whether there was a genuine national security justification.
“Here, the National Intelligence Service (EYP) told Androulakis that he had been under surveillance, but did not state the reason. In Bulgaria, they did not even provide that information. These two rulings (Tsatani and Kanev) lead me to believe that there may indeed be grounds for Mr. Tzavellas’ actions to be reviewed according to European standards,” Mr. Alivizatos said.
He also stressed that, “given that there was a conflict of duties, it could blow the entire case apart,” referring to the fact that Mr. Tzavellas — who refused to reopen the case file — was the same official overseeing the EYP during the critical period of the surveillance operations.
Sources: Καθημερινή, Βήμα, Εφ.Συν.
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