Between 2017 and 2022, more than sixty politicians, advocates, journalists and people from civil society related to Catalan independence will be spied on by Pegasus, a spy program of the Israeli signature NSO Group. Among the spies were the former presidents Pere Aragonès, Joaquim Torra, Carles Puigdemont and Artur Mas. Espionages are authorized by the National Intelligence Center (CNI), as will be confirmed by the Supreme Court. Ara, and for the first time, a international research It poses noms i cognoms to those responsible for Pegasus and its distribution to Europe.
It is the result of an investigation promoted by the center for the defense of human rights Irídia and other organizations such as the Observatory of Human Rights and Enterprises in the Mediterranean (ODHE) and Amnesty International. The expert report points to three races specifics of the Israeli company that owns the program, NSO Groupboth subsidiaries in Luxembourg, who are the main people responsible for this espionage, supposedly illegal and not subject to Spanish legislation.
It is owned by Shalev Hulio, founder of the parent company NSO in 2010, current CEO and board of directors of two Luxembourg subsidiaries since 2019; Omri Lavie, also founder and director of a Luxembourg subsidiary; i Yuval Somekh, director of one of the subsidiaries between 2016 and 2020 and of another subsidiary between 2019 and 2020.
An extension of the complaint
The investigation reveals that these three were responsible for illegal espionage on the phone d’Andreu Van den Eynde, Advocate Oriol Junqueras, Raül Romeva and Ruben Wagensberg for the cause of l’1-O. In this sense, Irídia, on behalf of Van den Eynde, has presented a extension of complaint to the Barcelona jutjat that fa uns dos anys that ho investigates. The entity provides the expert report that points against these three directives and demands the jutjat that claimed the seva from Luxemburg collaboration and declaration by videoconference.
The organizations demand that the European Union assume the conclusions of the commission of the European Parliament about this espionage and legislation to avoid abuses. Furthermore, they say that the Pegasus program is prohibited, considering that the software is totally incompatible with respect to the fundamental rights. Therefore, make sure that the spyware does not recognize what type of information is transmitted from infected mobile devices and, therefore, it is impossible to limit the invasive capacitance, com es requereix en qualsevol intromissió en drets fonamentals.
Pegasus could have been used in 70 states and could have affected 50,000 people
Anaïs Franquesa, director of Irídia, has explained that any person investigated by a jutjat, even if their communications are intervened, is more drastic than a person spied on by Pegasus. Així, remember that when the police intercept the communications of a mobile phone, it is subsequently possible to know what has not been obtained and for how long. Furthermore, it is possible to challenge. However, with Pegasus this information has been impossible to obtain for now.
Celia Carbonellalso from Irídia, has recalled that some studies point out that Pegasus could have been used in 70 states and 50,000 people. In Spain, they are also not sure that only the CNI is involved, but in various judicial summaries against Catalan independence there have been indications that the National Police or the Civil Guard may also have access.
Irídia will present this expert report to the service of other cases of judicial espionage and has warned that it will not be stored only in these three directives, and that it will arrive at the end of international judicial bodies, If necessary, to complete these practices.
A documentary on HBO
Coincidint with Irídia’s announcement the first trailer for the HBO Max documentary has been released to the public Surveilledabout NSO Group’s cyber espionage. The documentary, which also addresses Pegasus’ cyber espionage against Catalan independentists, can be seen from November 20.
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