Vasiliki Vlachou, who served as the prosecutor overseeing Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP) during the surveillance scandal involving the wiretapping of politicians, journalists, senior military officials, and thousands of citizens under the pretext of "national security," has been promoted to Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court.

During her time at EYP, Vlachou signed off – reportedly without scrutiny – on a large volume of surveillance requests. Now, following a recommendation by a senior Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, she is one of nine prosecutors who have been elevated to this top-level judicial position.

Her promotion has drawn sharp criticism from the PASOK party, which issued a statement noting that she was promoted after being cleared in a disciplinary review – one conducted by the very Deputy Prosecutor who succeeded her. The party also highlighted what it described as the burial of the wiretapping scandal.

Vlachou was appointed to the EYP in May 2020. Almost immediately, the number of surveillance orders citing “national security” surged. According to Greece’s Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE), 15,475 such orders were issued in 2021 – up from 13,751 in 2020 and 11,680 in 2019.

After the scandal broke, Dimitris Vervesos, President of the Athens Bar Association, called for disciplinary action against Vlachou. She was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing and returned to her post as Head of the Piraeus Court of Appeal Prosecutor’s Office.

Now, she joins the ranks of Greece’s top judiciary, alongside eight other promoted prosecutors:

  • Kyriaki Stefanatou (Athens)
  • Ourania Stathea (Athens)
  • Eleni Raikou (Athens)
  • Maria Troupi (Athens)
  • Georgios Kantzidis (Athens)
  • Nikolaos Nikolaou (Patras)
  • Eleni Skeparnia (Athens)
  • Efstratios Papathanasopoulos (Piraeus)

PASOK was scathing in its assessment of the promotion, stating:

“In today’s Greece, under Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s government, the former EYP prosecutor – who signed off, indiscriminately and without justification, on illegal surveillance of ministers, military leaders, and political party heads – is promoted to the highest level of the judiciary, having first been cleared in a disciplinary review by her successor.”

The party further criticised what it described as the swift closure of the surveillance scandal case, arguing that the government is trying to convince the public that it amounted to no more than a couple of private individuals indulging in a bizarre “hobby.”

Their statement concluded:

“The collapse of our institutions is unprecedented and bears the stamp of the New Democracy government. This is not the reality the Greek people deserve.”

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