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Sep 24, 2024 | 
balkaninsight.com | Eleni Stamatoukou
“We hoped that the Greek judiciary would possibly do its job,” Triantafillou said. “However, the prosecutorial investigation carried out by the Supreme Court did not include important journalistic findings.”But while the government of conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wants to a draw a line under the scandal, those targeted by the Predator spyware say they have identified serious flaws in the investigation and are considering appealing the case at the level of the European Union.
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Sep 18, 2024 | 
defenddemocracy.press | David Kenner |Eleni Stamatoukou
As the United States clamped down on the Intellexa group for the second time this year, advocates criticized Europe’s lack of action against commercial spyware creators. By David KennerSeptember 18, 2024 The United States leveled new sanctions against an international group of alleged senior figures from spyware group Intellexa, marking the second time this year the consortium has been targeted for the threat posed by its so-called “Predator” software.
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May 13, 2024 | 
balkaninsight.com | Eleni Stamatoukou
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all of Africa has supported the decision of the Orthodox Archbishop of Zimbabwe, Metropolitan Serafim, to ordain a female deaconess for missionary needs. “The mission in Africa needs deaconesses, especially for the pastoral work and for the baptisms of adult women,” the patriarchate said in a press release on May 11.
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Apr 4, 2024 | 
balkaninsight.com | Eleni Stamatoukou
Vangelis Zampounis had been dead for weeks already when a blast wrecked a petrol station he once owned in the Greek port city of Piraeus in early March. Zampounis, better known as Zampon, was shot dead in January at another of his pumps in Athens. He was 44 years old.
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Apr 3, 2024 | 
balkaninsight.com | Eleni Stamatoukou
In 2022, Dimitra Alexandraki, a well-known Greek influencer, visited an Athens beauty clinic for Botox injections and uploaded videos of her appointment to her personal Instagram account, urging her followers to try the salon’s services. Sofia [not her real name] took her advice, spending 400 euros on treatments at the salon; they left her face disfigured. “Their materials were adulterated and their doctors unlicenced,” the 43-year-old told BIRN on condition her real name not be used.
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Mar 1, 2024 | 
balkaninsight.com | Eleni Stamatoukou
Greek police said on Friday they had arrested an Albanian citizen allegedly involved in the murders of four members of the Montenegrin mafia in Vari, East Attica, in September 2020 and on Corfu island in the same year. Police reported that the Albanian was involved in the safekeeping and transportation of weapons used in the murders in Vari as well as in the escape of gang members after the murder in Corfu, from Sivota to Halkidiki and then abroad.
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Jan 31, 2024 | 
balkaninsight.com | Eleni Stamatoukou
Archeology has become popular once again in Greece, thanks partly to a project that inventively combines modern pop culture with exploration of Greece’s ancient past. Theodoros Papakostas, an archaeologist, has for six years run the project Archaeostoryteller, which is about the communication of the science of archeology. “Archaeology is for all of us – not for an elite,” Papakostas tells BIRN.
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Dec 14, 2023 | 
balkaninsight.com | Eleni Stamatoukou
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called for justice on the Pylos shipwreck, which cost the lives of more than 600 people, stressing that Greece has made little meaningful progress. Greek authorities have been accused of not immediately reacting to rescue the migrants. Investigations by Greek and foreign media revealed that the Greek Coast Guard’s actions and omissions contributed to the shipwreck and loss of life off Pylos.
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Dec 7, 2023 | 
balkaninsight.com | Eleni Stamatoukou
Photo: S.de Groot/ArchipelagosThe Athens District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday ordered the formation of a case file for the killing of four bottlenose dolphins in the northeastern Aegean in May, following a complaint by the Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation. “No environmental crime or killing of a wild animal can go unpunished. A basic principle is to be able to find the culprits,” Thodoris Tsimpidis, Director of the institute, told BIRN.
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Nov 30, 2023 | 
balkaninsight.com | Eleni Stamatoukou
Greece on Wednesday warned a meeting of the Council of Permanent Representatives of the EU, COREPER, that it is ready to block Albania’s EU accession talks if it does not respect the rights of the jailed ethnic Greek mayor-elect of Himara, Fredi Beleri. In the written statement, which BIRN has seen, Greece said it “expects Albania to take concrete and immediate measures towards Beleri assuming office, and respect his right to a fair trial and presumption of innocence”.
