Cleared in Greek border case, Austrian activist now sues EU data chief over Europol record

The EU’s data protection watchdog is being sued and accused of shielding Europe’s police agency Europol, in a case that could have wide reaching repercussions for human rights defenders and activists. “I’ve lived in a state of emergency for almost six years,” saysNatalie Gruber, an Austrian national who documented fundamental rights violations against migrants in Greece through her now-disbanded organisation Josoor. Speaking to EUobserver on Thursday (10 September), Gruber lodged the case earlier this week at the EU General Court and is represented by Iftach Cohen, a lawyer at Front-lex, a Dutch-based civil society organisation. Among other things, the case alleges that the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) had failed to protect her rights after she spent years trying to obtain her own personal information held by Europol, amid a Greek-led criminal investigation that was later dismissed. They are now seeking €130,000 in damages. When she finally managed to get indirect partial access, the EDPS revealed that her data had been held for the alleged crime of “forcing the competent authorities to rescue migrants,” according to court documents filed by Front-lex. “This is a manifest non-crime,” said Cohen, suggesting this would entitle Europol to process the personal data of a political activist for opposing a referendum or for trying to organise a Gay Pride event. Gruber's backstory leading up to the EDPS court case goes back to 2020 when Turkey allowed thousands of people to cross through the Greek land border, sparking an international crisis with Athens temporarily suspending asylum. Thousands more were stuck at the land border. Josoor arrived at the scene in March 2020, providing humanitarian relief and documenting violations. A month later, the Greeks quietly launched a criminal investigation into Josoor and three other NGOs. In September 2020, the Greeks went public with a press release. "We were exposing their crimes, so they tried their best to discredit us and deter us from doing it, and others also," said Gruber.