A Greek court on Friday convicted four executives linked to the Israeli spyware developer Intellexa for their roles in illegally wiretapping government officials, military leaders and journalists, sentencing each to eight years in prison, suspended pending appeal. The landmark ruling marks the first time executives of a mercenary spyware company have faced criminal sentencing for their actions, according to experts.
Those convicted include Tal Dilian, Intellexa’s founder and a former commander in an elite Israeli intelligence unit; Sara Hamou, his ex-wife and a key business partner; Felix Bitzios, an Intellexa executive; and Yiannis Lavranos, the owner of the Greek security firm that purchased Intellexa’s Predator spyware. The court found them guilty of violating the confidentiality of telephone communications and illegally accessing information systems, according to reports from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The case, known as “Predatorgate,” centers on the use of Intellexa’s Predator spyware to target the phones of at least 87 individuals in Greece, including opposition leaders, journalists investigating financial corruption, and the editor of a leading national newspaper. The revelations in 2022 prompted the resignations of the head of Greece’s intelligence agency and a senior aide to the prime minister.
The convictions come despite earlier U.S. Sanctions against Dilian, Hamou, and Bitzios in 2024, imposed in response to Intellexa’s sale of spyware to authoritarian regimes. Sanctions against Hamou were later lifted in late 2025, but did not halt the company’s operations. In May 2024, Predator spyware was used to hack the phone of Teixeira Cândido, a prominent Angolan journalist, even after the sanctions were in place, as reported by The Jerusalem Post.
“I was scared, of course, because I didn’t realize what content they took from my phone, from my emails, and I didn’t know what they had listened to,” Cândido told ICIJ. “It feels like you’re walking naked and being watched.”
Intellexa’s client list includes governments with documented human rights abuses, such as Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, accused of actions bearing “the hallmarks of genocide” by U.N. Experts, and the Egyptian and Vietnamese intelligence services. The Vietnamese government reportedly used Predator to attempt to hack the devices of U.S. Officials.
“This is the first time that an executive at a mercenary spy company has been convicted and sentenced to prison,” said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. “What this shows is when all the facts of spyware companies’ business models get in front of a fair judge, consequences will follow.”
The Greek court has agreed to share the trial record with other judicial authorities to investigate potential additional offenses by the defendants and others involved in the scandal, raising the possibility of further prosecutions, including potential espionage charges, according to The Times of Israel.
Hamou, a specialist in corporate offshoring, has also established businesses in Portugal, including a skincare company, demonstrating the continued diversification of Intellexa-linked ventures.
