Journalist and author Makarios Drousiotis has filed a new appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) concerning alleged surveillance of his devices while he had been researching a book on corruption involving Cyprus’s political and economic elite.
In a statement, Drousiotis alleged he suffered “illegal surveillance, intimidation and a likely state-instigated campaign to silence his investigative work.”
The journalist further claimed there was an “egregiously ineffective police investigation, characterised by professional negligence, delays, loss of evidence and misleading information, including failure to secure critical evidence from Google due to inadequate support from Cypriot authorities for a related judicial assistance request from US authorities.”
According to Drousiotis, “the abuse of surveillance technologies and the failure to investigate have left him and other vulnerable citizens exposed, while the authorities protect the corrupt.”
The allegations of surveillance against Drousiotis, came to light in a report by the European Parliament on the use of spyware, detailing how he was allegedly monitored by the state, starting in February 2018.
During this time, Drousiotis had been serving as an assistant to the Cypriot EU Commissioner, Christos Stylianides, and was actively investigating financial connections between the then-President of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, and Russian oligarchs.
In his book “Mafia State,” which is partly based on his experiences as an aide to Anastasiades, Drousiotis wrote that Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev used his relationship with the former president to promote his financial interests.
While researching the case, Drousiotis alleged that the Cypriot government used spyware and bugging against him, saying that his cell phone and computer were hacked in 2018.
As the revelations about Israeli private cyber-intelligence firm’s NSO Group’s operations in Cyprus emerged, along with suspicions that the country used NSO technologies, Drousiotis said he began noticing several indications that his phone may have been infiltrated with Pegasus spyware. These included missed WhatsApp calls, rapid battery depletion, and frequent overheating of his device even when not in use. He also reported incidents of intimidation, such as security cameras being disconnected at his residence and being followed by unidentified individuals.
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