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The founder of spyware maker Intellexa has said he is planning to appeal a conviction handed down by a Greek court on charges that he and three other executives<\/a> illegally obtained personal data as part of a mass-wiretapping campaign in the country.<\/p>\n The spying scandal, sometimes referred to as \u201cGreek Watergate,\u201d involved the hacking of dozens of phones belonging to senior Greek government ministers, opposition leaders, military officials, and journalists using the Intellexa\u2019s Predator spyware. The tool is capable of breaking into iPhones and Android devices to steal call logs, text messages, emails, and location data, typically by tricking a target into clicking a malicious link.<\/p>\n Several senior officials in the Greek government, including the head of Greece\u2019s national intelligence agency<\/a> and a senior aide to the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, resigned in the wake of revelations that several journalists\u2019 phones had been hacked. No government officials have been convicted in connection with the surveillance, and critics have accused the Mitsotakis government<\/a> of a cover-up.<\/p>\n Intellexa\u2019s founder Tal Dilian, was convicted in February and sentenced to eight years in prison. In a statement first reported by Reuters<\/a> on Wednesday, he said he will not be a \u201cscapegoat.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether or not Dilian is a scapegoat, as he claims, the remark is the most direct suggestion yet from anyone inside Intellexa that the Mitsotakis government authorized the hacks.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe a conviction without evidence is not ?justice, it could be part of a cover-up and even a crime,\u201d Dilian told Reuters. He said he was willing to share evidence with national and international regulators.<\/p>\n Dilian did not respond to TechCrunch\u2019s request for comment on his remarks. The Greek embassy in Washington, D.C. did not immediately respond when contacted by TechCrunch.<\/p>\n Dilian also told Reuters that surveillance technologies like Predator are typically sold only to governments, which are responsible for using them lawfully. <\/p>\n