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EU: Greece: Court rules on suspicious death

18 November 2017

EU  
Greece: Court rules on suspicious death
18.11.17
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UPDATE: Greece: Hanging linked to phone tapping revisited after EU ruling (ekathimerini.com, link):

"An appeals court prosecutor in Athens has asked to see the case file concerning the death of a telecoms engineer in 2005 shortly before the outbreak of a scandal involving the wiretapping of Greece’s political leadership, to ascertain whether it needs to be reopened.

The decision to revisit the case came after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) deemed on Thursday that Greece had failed to fully investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of former Vodafone employee Costas Tsalikidis, 38, who was found hanged in his apartment."

Court judgment

ECHR rules against Greece on mysterious wiretap scandal

Inadequate investigation into the death of a phone operator employee allegedly linked to a high profile wiretapping affair(Press release, pdf) and Judgment: full-text (pdf):

"The Court considered that the Greek authorities had failed to carry out an adequate and effective investigation into the death of Costas Tsalikidis. It found in particular that the authorities had decided to close the supplementary investigation, simply citing the relevant steps that had been taken and referring to new reports, without addressing any of the inconsistencies that had been identified, such as the lack of injuries normally associated with hanging and contradictions in the rope mark on the deceased’s neck. Other inconsistencies had not been resolved either, including the striking difference in the conclusions of the coroners’ forensic reports in the initial and the supplementary investigations, the apparent lack of motive for suicide and the broken hyoid bone, a finding consistent with strangulation.

Indeed, it was not even clear on what grounds the public prosecutor had based his decision not to prosecute or to order further investigative measures as his decision to close the investigation had contained no reasoning. In reaching that conclusion, the Court notably bore in mind that the public prosecutor, during the initial investigation, had mentioned that the death had been causally linked to the wiretapping case. It had therefore been all the more important to take every measure necessary to investigate Costas Tsalikidis’ death.(...)

On 2 February 2006 the Minister of Public Order made a statement informing the public that since June 2004 (two months before the Olympic Games) the telephones of many state officials had been tapped through spyware that had been implanted in the network of phone operator V. The wiretap, installed by persons unknown, had targeted more than 100 of Greece’s State officials, including the Prime Minister and many senior members of the Cabinet."

And see: ECHR rules against Greece over Tsalikidis’ mysterious death in wiretap scandal (Keep Talking Greece, link):

"The court considered that the Greek authorities had failed to carry out an adequate and effective investigation into the death of Costas Tsalikidis. The statement noted also: It found in particular that the authorities had decided to close the supplementary investigation, simply citing the relevant steps that had been taken and referring to new reports, without addressing any of the inconsistencies that had been identified, such as the lack of injuries normally associated with hanging and contradictions in the rope mark on the deceased’s neck."

Background

Greek Olympic phone trapping scandal (pdf) by Minas Samatas.

Greece: Prime minister and top officials' phones tapped by "unknown individuals" (Statewatch News)

GREECE: The ‘Super-Panopticon’ Scandal of Áthens 2004 Olympics and its Legacy (Statewatch News)

A DEATH IN ANTHENS Did a Rogue NSA Operation Cause the Death of a Greek Telecom Employee? Did a Rogue NSA Operation Cause the Death of a Greek Telecom Employee? (attikanea.blogspot.co.uk, link)

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