CARLOS FRESNEDA
Correspondent
@ cfresneda1
London
Updated on Monday, 19July2021-19: 31
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Send by email
Comment
Espionage More than 50,000 activists and journalists spied on by authoritarian regimes with an Israeli program
Middle East The former Saudi spy who could have been killed like Jamal Khashoggi
A long dozen authoritarian regimes have used Pegasus software, from the Israeli company NSO, to spy on more than 50,000 politicians, journalists, activists and lawyers. Some of them have even lost their lives and many have been harassed in recent years. The investigation sponsored by the organization Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International has gone around the world and has provoked the overwhelming reaction of leaders such as Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission: "All this has to be verified, and if it is true it is completely
unacceptable:
freedom of information is one of our core values. " From Mexico to India, passing through Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Azerbaijan or Morocco, the network has spread to
45 countries
with phones "infected" with the spy program originally designed to combat terrorism and high crime.
Mexico: Cecilio Pineda Birto
Mexican journalist Cecilio Pineda Birto died at the age of 38,
shot
at a car wash facility in Ciudad Altamirano, on March 2, 2017. Days before, he had participated in a program, broadcast by Facebook Live, in which he linked the police and local politicians with the local boss of
organized crime
in Tierra Caliente, southern Mexico.
Although it may have been geolocated by other means, the NSO technology surely served to find out where it was, even if it was not visible from the street.
At least 26 Mexican journalists were
"infiltrated"
by the Pegasus program between 2016 and 2017, including investigative journalists, newspaper editors and foreign media correspondents such as Azam Ahmed, head of The New York Times delegation.
At least 50 people in President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's circle (including his wife, children, counselors, and personal physician) are among the more than 15,000 people selected as potential espionage targets in Mexico.
Saudi Arabia: Jamal Khashoggi
Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated on October 2, 2018 at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.
Audio recordings have shown that he was tortured and that his body was
dismembered
with a chainsaw.
"We have nothing to do with that horrible murder," NSO CEO Shalev Hulio declared in 2019.
The "Pegasus Project" investigation has however found evidence that Khashoggi's last wife, the Egyptian
Hanan El Atr,
could be spied on before and after his death, as well as her circle of friends.
The program was even used to monitor the investigation carried out by the Turkish authorities and even
"tap" the communications of the chief prosecutor.
Khashoggi had fled Saudi Arabia in 2017;
his last wife was under house arrest in the United Arab Emirates.
A CIA report has implicated the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, in the murder of the journalist.
Bin Salman denies ordering his death.
India: Raul Gandhi
In India, the Pegasus surveillance program has been used to spy on Raul Gandhi, a former chairman of the Indian National Congress Party (CNI) and the prime minister's main political rival, Narendra Modi.
As revealed by 'The Guardian', Indira Gandhi's grandson was selected twice as a
"potential target" of surveillance,
among dozens of activists, journalists and critics of the Government.
Two numbers linked to Raul Gandhi appeared on the list of "infiltrators" by the Pegasus program in the months before and after the 2019 elections. Five other
friends, relatives and acquaintances
of the then CNI leader were also apparently watched.
Gandhi himself took the precaution of frequently changing mobile phones for fear of being spied on.
Espionage in India has also extended to critical media such as 'The Wire': its co-founder Siddarth Varadarajan has condemned
"the incredible intrusion"
when he learned that his communications - and those of his partner Paranjoy Guha Thakurta - were "hacked" with the help from the Israeli program.
Hungary: Szabolcs Panyi
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has used the Pegasus program in his private war against the media. Since 2010, when he took power, Hungary has fallen from number 23 to number 92 in the world ranking of press freedom.
Harassment, pressure or spying on journalists has been the daily bread in recent years.
The publication Direkt36 and the
investigative journalist
Szabolcs Panyi have been two of Pegasus's targets.
Panyi's mobile was "infiltrated" for at least seven months, and specifically on eleven occasions during his investigation into the relocation of a Russian bank to Budapest, despite objections that it could be a Trojan horse from the intelligence of Moscow.
"The government of Viktor Orban
has a paranoid obsession
that journalists are part of a conspiracy against his government," admits Panyi.
United Kingdom: Roula Khalaf
At the top of the list of 180 spied on journalists is the current
director of the 'Financial Times',
Roula Khalaf, born in Beirut and with a long history as a special envoy to the Middle East and North Africa.
Khalaf was allegedly spied on by the Government of Saudi Arabia, using the Pegasus program, when she served as deputy director of the FT in 2018.
In response to the information, the financial daily has stressed that "freedom of the press is a fundamental right" and that any interference by the State is "unacceptable."
Roula Khalaf has recently been awarded the EL MUNDO International Journalism Prize.
Morocco: Omar Radi
The 'freelance' journalist and human rights activist Omar Radi, who has brought to light
reports of corruption
in the Moroccan government, was also spied on using the Pegasus program between 2018 and 2019. The Moroccan government denies his alleged involvement in the plot, despite the fact that the infiltrated telephone numbers could have been
more than 10,000.
Radi was once accused of being a British spy.
Human Rights Watch has championed his case and accused the Moroccan authorities of "abusing the justice system to silence critical voices."
Azerbaijan: Khadija Ismayilova
Investigative journalist Kahdija Ismayilova, known for her reports denouncing the corruption of the autocratic regime of Ilham Aliyev (who has been in charge of the country since 2003) was "hacked" with the Pegasus program in 2019, as was her network dissidents, lawyers and even family members.
"I feel guilty for all my sources and for having thought that my messages were encrypted,"
the journalist told 'The Guardian'.
"My family has also been victimized, I did not know that my phone was infected. There are people who may be in danger from all this; it is unfortunate that these tools are available to evil people like the Aliyev regime."
Rwanda: Carine Kanimba
Carinae Kanimba, daughter of
incarcerated activist
Paul Rusesabagina (who inspired the movie "Hotel Rwanda"), has been subjected to an intense surveillance operation with the help of the Pegasus program.
Kanimba, a Belgian and American national, has been at the forefront of the campaign to free his father and has harshly criticized the regime of President Paul Kagame.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
HBPR
Mallorca Inside the hotel of the macrobrote: "They run through the corridors, have parties and phone jokes. It's hell"
New traffic restriction zone This is what the low-emission area of Plaza Elíptica will look like: out of unlabeled cars and polluting buses
Covid-19 Two variants of the virus in the macro outbreak in Mallorca: "We are repeating the mistake of last summer"
See links of interest
Last News
Olympic Games
Work calendar
Home THE WORLD TODAY
Data journalism