In the wake of the order of the prosecutor of the Supreme Court not to withdraw the case of observations, the Athens Bar Association has issued a resolution calling for the resignation of Konstantinos Tzavellas.

Move unprecedented in the annals of the Athens Bar Association and indicative of the slippery slope on which anti-opposition tactics have entered the country.

In this resolution, the professional association of lawyers seems to be following the increasingly popular and toxic political practice formed daily, especially by PASOK and its president Nikos Androulakis until all institutions and at the same time pillars of democracy expire.

The vote disapproves the act of not withdrawing the case from the file and notes that Mr Tzavellas has definitively failed in fulfilling his institutional role.

The full text of the resolution

“The Board of Directors of the Athens Bar Association at its extraordinary meeting on 29.4.2026, by majority vote, adopted the following resolution on the issue of phone tapping:

The Athens Bar Association, through repeated resolutions, scientific events, legal actions and petitions since 2022 until today, has highlighted the top importance of the case of phone tapping for the rule of law. The safeguarding of the confidentiality of communications enjoys absolute protection under Article 19 of the Constitution and is a prerequisite for the exercise of all constitutionally guaranteed rights of citizens. This is why the uncovered interception of the telephone communications of top state officials, generals, judges, ministers, parliamentarians, journalists, lawyers and others, both through the dubious legality of the lifting of telephone privacy for ‘national security reasons’ and through the Predator spy software, is an indelible blow to the guarantees of the rule of law, which must be fully investigated and solved.

The Board of Directors of the IOA, in its resolution of 6/3/2026, pointed out that the decision of the Athens Single-Member Plenary Court, by which, following the concurring opinion of the Attorney General of Athens, the case file was re-transmitted to the prosecution authorities due to sufficient evidence of the commission of serious criminal acts, such as the criminal offence of espionage, despite the previous filing of the case at the level of the Supreme Court Prosecutor, is an important judicial development in the case of illegal surveillance and underlined the need for a full and transparent investigation of all aspects of the case.

In view of the above, the Athens Bar Association strongly and categorically disapproves the Act of 27/4/2026 of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court Mr. Tzavellas, which does not withdraw the case of telephone tapping from the file, without any further investigation based on the provisions of the decision of the Athens Single-Member Plenary Court and the volume of newer evidence relied upon. The refusal of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court to fulfil his statutory duty in such an important case constitutes an institutional aberration, given his personal involvement as the supervising (at the time in question) Prosecutor of the NSA, which would have required him to abstain from any further handling of the case. The citizens’ claim for judicial protection is, we believe, rightly sacrificed on the altar of an attempted cover-up, while the need for accountability of the executive branch is being nullified by the guardians of its control.

For the above reasons, the Board of Directors of the Athens Bar Association, sensing the responsibility arising from the principles and traditions of the legal profession, exercising its statutory authority under the Code of Lawyers, decides today to request the resignation of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, who, by shirking his statutory duty, has definitively failed to fulfill his institutional role. At the same time, the Board of the ASA decided the following immediate actions:

  • the organization of a press conference in the “Michael Zafeiropoulos” hall of the Athens Bar Association in order to inform the public opinion.
  • the organization of an open scientific event on the issue of ensuring the confidentiality of communications, its legislative shielding and the need for exhaustive investigation of the case,
  • the protest performance of the Board of Directors of the IBA at the Supreme Court,
  • the support of the victims of the telephone tapping and their lawyers in any legal action that leads to the investigation of the case and the disclosure of the truth before the Greek and European courts,
  • forwarding this decision to the Council of European Bar Associations (CCBE),
  • establishing a committee with the use of personalities of the legal world and persons of renowned prestige and with the content of the public promotion and reopening of the case.

Supporters voted. The following members were elected. Secretary K. Karetsos and Councillors I. Avarkiotis, M. Angeli, S. Voukounas, A. Kabagiannis, H. C. Stylianoudakis, A. Terzibasis.

Supporting the decision of the Coordinating Committee of the Plenary Session of the Presidents of the Bar Associations were: President A. Koutsolambros, Vice President Z. Stavropoulos and Counsellors F. Giannoulas, Th. Marinakis and H. Christopoulos.

Councillors X. Marouli and A. Prusanidis

Against were Councillor Treasurer C. Mayor and Councillor Th. Mandas”.