Tomorrow is the meeting of the Institutions committee on monitoring

The issue of “self-protection of the process” was raised by the president of the Parliament, Kostas Tasoulas, during today’s conference of the presidents of the Parliament, which examined the organization of tomorrow’s secret meeting of the Institutions & Transparency Committee on the surveillance case. As Mr. Tasoulas mentioned to the parliamentary editors, he asked the party representatives to help us not to have phenomena of direct transmission of the secret process.

Regarding the procedure itself, Mr. Tasoulas said that it is a hearing (of the invited guests) which essentially constitutes a parliamentary control and that the Committee does not act as a prosecutor of First Instance. He also noted that the persons under hearing will all enter the closed session together and that they will speak/be questioned in turn.

In the proposal of the opposition parties to publish the minutes of the meeting, without any information related to national security and defense, Mr. Tasoulas said that the regulation only provides for the issuance of a “finding”, that is, an agreed text in the form of conclusions. That is the only way out, however (agreeing to such a finding) is an “impressive challenge,” Mr Tasoulas said.

The Speaker of the Parliament said that there was a suggestion to the MPs not to take their mobile phones with them inside the committee meeting room.

It is noted that invitations for tomorrow’s meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Institutions and Transparency have been addressed to:

– Christos Rammos, president of the Communications Privacy Assurance Authority, honorary vice-president of the Council of State,

– Grigorio Dimitriadis, former general secretary of the Prime Minister,

– Vasiliki Vlachou, Athens Appeals Prosecutor, supervisor of the National Intelligence Service,

– Panagiotis Kontoleontas, former Commander of the National Intelligence Service (NIS),

– Themistoklis Demiri, commander of the National Intelligence Service (NIS),

– Konstantinos Tzavellas, Athens Appeals Prosecutor,

– Theodoros Dravilla, former commander of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and

– Ioannis Roubatis, former commander of the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

The Minister of State, Georgios Gerapetritis, has also been invited to attend.

Opposition parties’ objections to the organization of the meeting of the Institutions committee on monitoring

Opposition party representatives expressed objections to the organization of tomorrow’s meeting of the Institutions and Transparency Committee, to which nine persons related to the issue of surveillance have been invited, during today’s conference of presidents.

The representative of SYRIZA-PS, Giorgos Katrougalos, spoke of an attempt to degrade parliamentarism and of the majority’s intention to undermine tomorrow’s meeting. As he said, while all the parties asked to be invited individually and to place those who have been invited, or even to have two sections, one for those involved in the present wiretapping scandal of Androulakis, Koukakis, i.e. the big predator scandal, and one for everyone the others, of the previous parliamentary periods, the majority seems to seek a bachalo procedure, where nine people will be at the same meeting from the beginning, against whom questions will be submitted as a group by those present in the Institutions committee.

According to the SYRIZA member of parliament, it is self-evident that what the parliamentary majority seeks is to avoid checking the truth, not to allow a substantial investigation and discussion.

Mr. Katrougalos also expressed the opinion that the issue of the confidentiality of the meetings was raised for reasons of distraction. We said, obviously, that secrecy be observed to the extent that it protects national security and national secrets, but this provision of the regulation by the majority cannot be an alibi and an object of manipulation, so that, with selective leaks, distorting what it was said. He also noted his party’s proposal for the formulation of a conclusion, which will be made public, based on the minutes of the meeting. “If there are elements in the minutes, which relate to issues of national security or national secrecy, these should obviously be omitted, but everything else should be in the light” he said and noted: “Even this proposal of ours was rejected because the majority is not interested in true. We will also raise these issues in tomorrow’s Institutions committee and one thing is certain: We will not allow Mr. Mitsotakis to escape”.

On behalf of the KKE, Nikos Karathanasopoulos stated that the issues of wiretapping are very serious matters, that they are directly related to the people and their rights, and for this reason “any investigation cannot be done in secret, very, very , more to have selective leaks to create impressions”.

Mr. Karathanasopoulos said that the KKE requested that the minutes of the discussions be made public, adding that in matters that may be confidential and related to defense, then the matter of not making them public should be considered on a case-by-case basis. As for the recommendation to committee members not to bring their cell phones to the meeting, he said that “it’s a false dilemma”: What protects everyone, is full publicity and the investigation into the substance of this case, said Mr. Karathanasopoulos .

The secretary of PASOK-Movement of Change, Evangelia Liakoulis said that we asked (for) everything to come to light, but this can only be done through the institutions, and in a completely institutional way. Today, he added, the majority proposed that the Committee on Institutions and Transparency group all those who come, and that we listen to them all together. “This leads to the absolute trivialization of the process,” stressed Ms. Liakoulis.