Pedro Sanchez and the Spanish Minister of Defense targets of illegal eavesdropping
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Brussels on July 20, 2020. AP - John Thys
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The mobile phones of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his Minister of Defense Margarita Robles were tapped "
illegally
" and "
externally
" using Israeli software Pegasus, claimed Monday (May 2). the Spanish government.
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The case of the Israeli spyware
Pegasus
is experiencing a new episode in Spain.
“
It is not about suppositions
”, declared during a press conference convened with an urgency character by the Minister of the Presidency, Monday, May 2.
Félix Bolaños spoke of facts "
of enormous gravity
", which occurred in 2021. "
We have the absolute certainty that this is an external attack (...) because in Spain, in a democracy like ours, all interventions are carried out by official bodies and with judicial authorization,
” he said.
"
In the present case, neither of these two circumstances occurred.
That is why (...) we have no doubt that it is an external intervention
,” continued Félix Bolaños.
Three intrusions between May and June 2021
The Minister did not specify whether the Spanish authorities had any clue as to the origin of this intervention, and in particular whether it came from a foreign country: "
When we speak of external intrusion, what we mean is that it is not the work of State bodies and that it has not been authorized by the courts.
»
Félix Bolaños indicated that there had been "
two intrusions
" into Pedro Sanchez's laptop, in May 2021, and one into Margarita Robles's, in June 2021. In both cases, the interventions made it possible to extract "
a determined amount of data from both mobile phones
,” he said.
“
There is no evidence that there were any other intrusions after these dates
,” he continued.
El-Gob.
ha puesto in conocimiento de la justicia dos informe según los cuales los telf.
Mobiles of the President of Gobierno and the Ministry of Defense have been infected with the Pegasus software.
➡️ 2 intrusions in Mayo of 2021.
➡️ 1 intrusion in June of 2021.
🗣️ Félix Bolaños pic.twitter.com/bMkz4W0Pdi
— PSOE (@PSOE) May 2, 2022
Designed by the Israeli company NSO
, Pegasus allows, once installed on a laptop, to access messaging, data or to activate the device remotely for the purpose of capturing sound or images.
NSO has always maintained that Pegasus can only be sold to states and that such sales must first obtain the green light from the Israeli authorities.
► To read also: Pegasus: a weapon for dictators, according to the Israeli press
According to the NGO Amnesty International, this software could have been used to hack up to 50,000 laptops worldwide.
These revelations come as Spain is in the throes of a crisis between the central government of Pedro Sanchez, a socialist, and pro-independence circles in Catalonia, who accuse the National Intelligence Center (CNI, the Spanish intelligence service) of spying.
The case broke on April 18, when Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity project at Canada's University of Toronto, released a report identifying
65 pro-independence activists – mostly Catalans –
whose cellphones were reportedly stolen .
hacked between 2017 and 2020 by Israeli software.
(with
AFP
)
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