Once they belonged to the same political party, socialist PASOK. But now lawyer Agis Tatsis filed a law suit against his former socialist comrade for “exposing the country”. Just hours after former foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos claimed during a radio interview on Tuesday morning that “Greek intelligence service (EYP) was tapping US-ambassadors in Athens and in Ankara, Turkey,” Agis Tatsis went to a police station and filed a law suit against him.
The law suit has two aspects but both end in the same charges: two felonies and one misdemeanor, that could draw up to 10 years imprisonment and deprivation of political rights.
According to the plaintiff, if what Pangalos claimed was true, it constituted a felony because he disclosed state secrets and thus put in danger the state, the institution and its employees. But even if what Pangalos claimed was not true, again this constituted a felony because he put the state at risk of retaliation and disruption of peaceful relations with other countries.”
Agis Tatsis requested the prosecution of ex Foreign minister as he is not covered anymore by the parliamentary immunity.
Tatsis told newsit.gr, that his lawsuit was not personnaly against Pangalos but against his acts.
On Wednesday morning, Greek media reported that the lawsuit was handed out to the prosecutor by the police director of the police station where it was filed. “It is up to the prosecutor to decide about the further development,” media reported.
Frustrations is the word that can describe the reactions of the political world to Pangalos’ statements.
“The former foreign minister has no business saying these things,” said Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis (Nea Dimocratia), reflecting the government’s frustration with Pangalos.
Publicly, the Greek government denied the claims made by Pangalos on Tuesday but privately there was frustration as officials felt he took the pressure off Washington to account for its eavesdropping of European leaders and reports concerning the use of the US Embassy in Athens.
Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said that EYP cooperates with the USA on terrorism issues and that the Greek Intelligence Service acts in within the context of the Constitution and the law and in respect of friends and allies.
Theodoros Pangalos, 75, served as Foreign Minister 1996-1999. He served also as deputy prime Minister in Papandreou and Papademos governments. He was not elected to the Parliament at the June 2012 elections. Here is what he told Vima fm.
(sources newsit, ekathimerini, protothema)
I can’t believe that anyone in today’s world thinks that all the countries are not spying and each other.
but they do not openly admit it