Five individuals linked to Intellexa have been placed at the centre of Greece’s wiretapping scandal by journalist Thanasis Koukakis and his lawyer, Zacharias Kesses, through an application filed on 4 June with Supreme Court prosecutor Konstantinos Tzavellas seeking the retrieval of the case file.
The application follows recent remarks by Intellexa founder Tal Dilian in an interview with Efimerida ton Syntakton. Dilian argued that neither he nor his companies operated the Predator spyware in Greece and claimed that only governments and intelligence services had the capability to use the software. According to Dilian, such entities are also the sole customers of spyware products of this kind.
Honing in on the clients
In addition to Dilian and his three co-defendants in the Predator case: Sara Hamou, Felix Bitzios and Yiannis Lavranos who were convicted at first instance, Koukakis and Kesses are requesting that five further individuals be called to testify: Merom Harpaz, Einat Semana, Dimitrios Xypteras, Ioannis Toumbis and Ioannis Boliaris.
“The examination of the above individuals is necessary both for the full and substantive investigation of the case and for the protection of national security from any irreparable harm that could arise if Tal Dilian’s claim is true that Predator was used by a government or intelligence service — as its only possible customers — and that service was not the National Intelligence Service,” the application states.
The five individuals
Merom Harpaz, a highly specialised technical executive and close associate of Dilian, is alleged to have played a key role in the operation of Intellexa’s Greek office. According to testimony from former Intellexa employee Panagiotis Koutsios, Harpaz was not involved in the company’s management but was responsible for overseeing its operations in Greece. Koutsios also testified that Harpaz held both Israeli and Bulgarian passports.
During the Predator trial, Lina Katsouda — a former employee of Krikel and former personal assistant to Felix Bitzios — identified Harpaz as the individual who provided information and completed documentation required for export licences issued by the Greek Foreign Ministry for Predator sales to Madagascar, Ukraine and Sudan.
Israeli-born Einat Semana held senior positions in companies linked to Dilian and is alleged to have played an administrative role in the establishment of Intellexa in Greece. According to testimony from accountant Ilias Kyriakidis, Semana and Sara Hamou visited him, following a referral from Bitzios, with the aim of setting up companies in Greece.
Equipment removed
The remaining three individuals are connected to the removal of Intellexa equipment from the facilities of Hostmein, a company providing colocation and internet connectivity services.
The relationship between the two companies ended abruptly on 16 December 2021, the day the first reports linking Intellexa and Cytrox to Predator became public following investigations by Citizen Lab and Meta.
According to Greece’s Data Protection Authority, Intellexa personnel arrived at Hostmein’s data centre without prior notice and removed all of the company’s equipment. Hostmein said Intellexa claimed the equipment would be temporarily transferred to its offices for maintenance because it formed part of a “demo lab”, with plans to reinstall it shortly afterwards. The equipment never returned.
The Greek Cypriot
Case documents indicate that Dimitrios Xypteras, Ioannis Toumbis and Ioannis Boliaris took part in the removal of the equipment. Xypteras, a Greek Cypriot, is said to have followed Dilian from Cyprus to Greece and served as Intellexa’s primary point of contact with Hostmein.
Particular attention is drawn to the fact that, just ten days before the servers were removed, Intellexa had been discussing an expansion of its leased space at Hostmein to accommodate additional equipment. Correspondence between the two companies reportedly suggests that the removal was carried out so hastily that Intellexa employees inadvertently took hardware belonging to Hostmein.
Boliaris was among Intellexa’s earliest employees in Greece, while both he and Xypteras were identified by Koutsios during his testimony in the Predator trial. Witness statements indicate that Toumbis served as the company’s IT manager.
The application notes that information relating to all five individuals was included in the case file transmitted following a decision by the Athens Single-Member Misdemeanour Court and subsequently archived by the Supreme Court prosecutor. Despite this, none of the five has been called to testify or formally examined as part of the investigation into Greece’s wiretapping scandal.
