Cyprus left exposed in the European Parliament too for the wiretappings/surveillance
Statement by AKEL MP Aristos Damianou after the meeting of the Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee
28 June 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia
Last November, we tabled a subject for discussion in the Legal Affairs Committee entitled: “Cyprus’ involvement in the production and distribution of spy software that may be used for illegal surveillance”, the so-called dual-use software.
At the time, there were repeated statements by the Anastasiades government that such spy software was neither manufactured, nor exported in the Republic of Cyprus. There was even a reference to ‘figments of imagination’.
We subsequently presented in the Committee on Legal Affairs concrete evidence of the production, transfer and export of such software from the Republic of Cyprus and we were waiting, given the activity of the European Parliament’s special committee on surveillance and illegal software, called PEGA, for the European Parliament to complete its work, so that we could complete our own ex officio investigation in the Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee.
Today, we have had the second and final round of examination of this matter, and I must say that we are all leaving wiser, but also very concerned. We are worried because all those things that we denounced from the very beginning, which have unfortunately found their place in the European Parliament’s report as well, are a disgrace to the Republic, they tarnish once again the name of the Republic of Cyprus, because with political and institutional backing, elements, some of which are criminal elements, were allowed to operate in the Republic of Cyprus, to produce, transfer and export dual-use software and to contaminate other states with this software. A good example is Greece and what has happened in Greece with regard to the issues of surveillance.
Of course, our concern is not just about apportioning responsibility, where there is responsibility at many, many levels, political, administrative and so on. There is a smell of a cover-up on some issues. The important thing is to see how we are improving as a state and as a state, so we have listed the findings of the European Parliament and the issues on which the Republic of Cyprus is required to take action and we expect in the coming weeks and months to see exactly how Departments and Ministries will respond to the European Parliament’s demand.
However, the truth is that on this issue too, as a result of interests, expediencies and interwoven interests/entanglement, the Republic of Cyprus is once again being exposed and we, as a people, are being exposed too, because some conniving people have chosen to develop this activity in the Republic of Cyprus.
In addition, as AKEL we have decided on a series of actions, which will be announced in the coming days and a special press conference will be held in early July, where data and facts will be presented to document what has happened in the past years regarding dual-use software and surveillance.
