Exclusive: The Greek Supreme Court is trying to bury a key investigation in a mass surveillance scandal that targeted journalists

On 24 October, Achilleas Zisis, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Greek Supreme Court, issued a final rejection of journalist Stavros Malichudis' request to access the investigation file concerning his surveillance by the Greek National Intelligence Service (EYP). The rejection was communicated via a handwritten note on the access request document, which is in RSF's possession. The note provides no substantive justification for the decision - issued almost three years after the arbitrary surveillance came to light - and merely states that the journalist was "not a direct victim." Stavros Malichudis, a laureate of European Parliament's 2023 journalism prize, is now left with no means of contesting the rejection and little hope that justice will be served.

The EYP's surveillanceof Stavros Malichudis, who covers migration issues, was exposed on 13 November 2021, when the news site Efimerida Ton Syntakton (Efsyn)published a leaked EYP document revealing that Greek intelligence had spied on the journalist in an attempt to identify his sources. The case was soon followed by a similar revelation involving financial journalist Thanasis Koukakis. Now known as "Predetorgate", the full scandal involvedabout ten journalists and high-ranking media professionals who were either targeted with the spyware Predator or placed under more conventional types of surveillance. Recent press reportshave also exposed the existence of an EYP control centre responsible for these surveillance operations. The methods used to spy on Stavros Malichudis are still not clear.

On 30 July, the Greek Supreme Court chosenot to prosecute the EYP or those responsible for its political oversight despite multiple journalistic investigations revealing the intelligence services' involvement in the illegal surveillance of reporters and politicians.

"Intelligence services are essential to state functions, but their actions must be carefully overseen," said Dimitris Georgakopoulos, Stavros Malichudis' legal representative. "The Malichudis case in Greece illustrates a serious blow to press freedom: even journalists conducting legitimate research and meeting sources can be monitored as 'threats to national security' without facing charges or knowing the details of their surveillance. No one is held accountable, and journalists have no access to their own case files, blurring the lines between national safety and unlawful citizen monitoring."

The suspicious treatment of Stavros Malichudis' case file

Despite filing a lawsuit in February 2022 that demanded accountability, Stavros Malichudis has faced unprecedented procedural obstacles. In general, prosecutorial investigations conclude by either pressing charges or officially archiving the case and providing a reason for why it was dropped. Yet Stavros Malichudis' case remains open and lacks any semblance of a resolution - and the victim has been denied access to all the documents in his case file. These procedural anomalies raise profound concerns over whether the case was ever genuinely investigated.

Although the lawsuit was filed directly with the Supreme Court due to the public interest at stake, it was quickly transferred to the First Instance Prosecutor's Office, which delayed and complicated the investigation. The case cycled back to the Supreme Court after more than a year, and was associated with Predatorgate cases. In July 2024, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court issued a first rejection of Stavros Malichudis' request, a decision confirmed by the second, final refusal in October 2024.

Greece comes in 88th out of 180 countries and territories in RSF's 2024 World Press Freedom Index, the lowest-ranking country of all European Union member states.