Spanish intelligence chief sacked after spyware planted on PM's phone

MADRID (Reuters) - The Spanish government has sacked the director of its top intelligence agency, Spanish media reports said, amid two separate cases of politicians' cellphone hacking.

The Spanish news agency EFE said the government had sacked the director of Spain's National Intelligence Service (CNI) Bas Esteban after it was revealed last week that the mobile phones of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Defense Minister Margarita Robles had been hacked last year.

Last week, Esteban admitted in a closed committee of the Spanish parliament that her agency had legally hacked the phones of several Catalan separatists after obtaining judicial permission.

Her agency is also under scrutiny due to the government's recent revelations that the mobile phones of both the Spanish prime minister and defense minister were also infiltrated with the spyware by an "external" force.

In the wake of the hacking of the phones of Catalan politicians, the government announced last week that scans of the phones of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense revealed that they had been infected with the Pegasus spyware in May and June of 2021. It said the perpetrator was unknown.

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