Μake us preferred on Google Tal Dilian has used the closure of a Cypriot corruption inquiry to send a new message to Athens, arguing that attempts to tie the Cypriot so-called “black van” affair to the Greek Predator wiretapping scandal were never grounded in fact.
In a written statement exclusive to TV station Alpha Cyprus, the Intellexa founder who has been convicted in a Greek court over the use and distribution of the Predator spyware, said he welcomed the decision by Cyprus’s Independent Authority Against Corruption to end its investigation into the case, which centered on a van equipped with surveillance technology. He said the effort to connect that case to the phone-tapping scandal in Greece rested on “a narrative, and not on the facts.”
Dilian called the announcement “a moment of important clarification.” The allegations concerning the van, he said, were investigated in depth in Cyprus five or six years ago, then reexamined independently and recently by a reputable anti-corruption authority, which reconfirmed that there was no basis or need for further inquiry, precisely because the issues in question had already been properly examined. He said he welcomed and respected the professionalism and independence of the Cypriot authorities and the conclusions they reached after a thorough investigation.
He predicted the ruling would disappoint some people in Greece “who hoped to link the two cases” on the basis of narrative rather than fact. Repetition, he said, does not amount to proof, and political or media pressure cannot change the underlying facts.
Dilian framed the Cyprus decision as a first step toward quieting what he called the noise around the affair, saying he remains convinced that as proceedings in Greece continue, the facts and evidence will receive due examination and help restore his reputation and reveal the truth about the charges against him and the three other defendants in the Greek case.
He closed on a sharper note, suggesting that those who have long relied on the narrative “may ultimately find that the facts tell a completely different story,” and that some may find the truth, which he said they already know, increasingly difficult to reconcile with the narrative they chose to promote.
A running feud with the Greek Government
Dilian’s statement can also be interpreted as the latest chapter in his public dispute with the government, and as an indirect reply to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who told reporters at this year’s Thessaloniki International Fair that he had no intention of entering into public debate with someone currently convicted at a first instance court.
It would not be the first time the Intellexa founder, has made statements that put the Greek government on the spot. In June, he told the Greek newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton that his company never operated the spyware inside Greece, only sold it to state services, implying that it was the Prime Minister’s office and the intelligence services that carried out the surveillance of ministers, politicians, senior military officers, judicial officials and journalists.
A few months earlier, in March, Dilian suggested to Mega television’s Dora Anagnostopoulou that the Greek government had been his main partner in the wiretapping affair, undercutting the official account that private individuals alone were responsible. “We operate strictly in accordance with European and international export regulations, providing technology only to governments and law enforcement agencies,” he said at the time. “We have never conducted surveillance activities ourselves, nor do we retain operational access once systems are delivered.”
Source: in.gr
