Politis today highlights another aspect of the high-profile "black van" case that warrants investigation, concerning the client list of former Mossad agent Tal Dilian.
A confidential Audit Office report reveals, on the one hand, the network of Cypriot and other companies set up by Dilian together with fellow nationals, manufacturing and selling surveillance software, and, on the other hand, the contracts and dealings Dilian maintained with services of the Republic of Cyprus. In addition, there are the allegations made during the discussion of the matter before the House Legal Affairs Committee, on 9 November 2022 and 28 June 2023, according to which Dilian's client list included political parties and politicians. Specifically, there was talk of the purchase of surveillance and telephone interception services from Dilian's companies. Related references are also made in the recently published book by our colleague Fanis Makridis, "Cyprus: The Navel of Surveillance."
A confidential report
Regarding Dilian's dealings with the state, the Anti-Corruption Authority has all the relevant material, since a team of Audit Office officers identified and recorded it in the report it forwarded to the Authority for investigation on 10 May 2023. That material includes an allegation of a possible conflict of interest involving Deputy Attorney General Savvas Angelides. The allegation was forwarded to the Authority exactly as it had been submitted to the Audit Office by an unknown person, since the Audit Office had neither the authority nor the means and access to investigate it itself.
The reason the Audit Office forwarded its findings to the Anti-Corruption Authority was to investigate, among other things, the reasons why services of the Republic cooperated with, or purchased services from, Dilian's companies, and, by extension, to establish whether there had been unlawful surveillance of citizens, politicians and state officials. The case took on a new dimension following Dilian's recent conviction in Athens, where he was sentenced at first instance to eight years in prison for intercepting the telephone conversations of ministers, party leaders, state officials, military personnel and others.
This particular allegation, together with all the accompanying findings and documents, was classified by the Audit Office as confidential and forwarded to the Anti-Corruption Authority for investigation on 10 May 2023.
"Very serious findings…"
The first and only time the Audit Office referred to this allegation in relation to the Anti-Corruption Authority was in a press release it issued on 22 May 2023, referring to "very serious findings" concerning state procurement contracts.
Specifically, in its statement the Audit Office said the following: "Our Service had received an allegation containing claims regarding the conduct of the Deputy Attorney General in relation to the black van case. This matter does not fall within the competence of our service. However, in examining aspects of the allegation in order to confirm certain elements before forwarding it to the Independent Anti-Corruption Authority, issues emerged concerning state procurement contracts, on which we have very serious findings. The entire package, that is the original allegation together with our own findings, was sent to the Authority on 10/5/2023. We do not intend to say anything further about this matter, as it concerns confidential public contracts. This was our own choice from the outset, and we will maintain that position."
Cooperation with the police
According to information obtained by Politis, the Audit Office's investigation includes findings confirming cooperation between the police and Dilian. Material which, as it turned out, was also in the possession of AKEL MP Aristos Damianou, who referred to it before the House Legal Affairs Committee in November 2022, when Dilian's unlawful activity in Cyprus came under parliamentary scrutiny.
As he had alleged, the client list of the two Israelis meaning Dilian and his close associate Avraham Sahak Avni and their companies, which were based in a building on Alexandrou Panagouli Street in Larnaca, included the police. Specifically, Mr Damianou stated verbatim: "We hold the strong view that if the authorities of the Republic had generally done their job properly, the activities of these individuals and their companies (some of which were renamed) might not have spread to and contaminated Greece as well. All the more so given that the Police and the KYP [Cyprus Intelligence Service] cooperated with these gentlemen and knew very well about their unlawful activity. And I ask the Chief of Police to inform the committee of the contents of the relevant report which the Police have had in their possession for six years."
The Chief did not know…
The then Chief of Police, Stylianos Papatheodorou, responding to Mr Damianou, said that an internal police investigation had found no evidence that the Police had purchased any services from Dilian and Avni. Mr Damianou repeated the question, indicating that he had documents proving otherwise. The Chief of Police replied that no surveillance services had been purchased from the two Israelis either during his own tenure or that of his predecessor, adding that if the Police had made such a purchase, there would be documents or invoices confirming it. The Chief of Police further asked Aristos Damianou to hand over the specific document, with the AKEL MP referring him instead to the Ministry of Justice and the Law Office.
It was confirmed in the end
Two months later, the Chief confirmed to Parliament that there had indeed been cooperation between the Police and Dilian-Avni.
Specifically, he informed Parliament that in 2011 the Police had purchased a forensic examination system for extracting data from electronic devices, and in 2014 a system for extracting footage from closed-circuit television, in the context of criminal investigations. As Mr Papatheodorou clarified, these particular purchases did not concern surveillance systems or services.
Dilian operated with state licences
Tal Dilian's presence in Cyprus became widely known in 2019, when he gave an interview to the American magazine Forbes, advertising the phone-tapping and surveillance software installed in the black van.
It was revealed in Parliament that in 2018, the Ministry of Commerce granted WiSpear Systems Ltd, a company owned by Dilian, an export licence for phone-tapping and interception software, for the purpose of selling it.
