The massive espionage of the Catalan independence movement is in question: "The Citizen Lab study was partial and not very rigorous"

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The report carried out by an interdisciplinary academic laboratory at the

, Citizen Lab, to which the independence movement seized a year ago to ensure that "Spain is spying on us" and to initiate a media and legal offensive against the Spanish authorities has been questioned in the European Parliament for another investigation carried out by

, professor and academic of the Department of Political Sciences and Administration of the National University of Distance Education (UNED).

A study presented in Brussels this Thursday by the Euro deputy of Cs

CatalanGate identified 65 victims, completed or attempted, of the Pegasus spyware, created by the company NSO Group.

Among those affected would be several senior officials of the Generalitat, such as presidents

as well as ministers, MEPs, deputies in the Parliament, such as the then president

activists from the ANC and Òmnium, lawyers or computer professionals, among others, such as

general coordinator of Euskal Herria Bildu.

Following the presentation of this report, a media campaign was launched by the pro-sovereignty parties using one of Citizen Lab's conclusions which states that "while at this time we do not attribute the operation to a specific government entity, circumstantial evidence show a strong link with the Spanish government, especially taking into account the nature of the people attacked, the moments in which they occurred and the fact that Spain is listed as a client of NSO Group”.

The complaint reached the European Parliament and precisely in the commission of investigation on the use of Pegasus to spy another report was presented on Thursday by the MEP for Citizens Jordi Cañas that questions all the actions of Citizen Lab. An investigation by José Javier

, Professor and academic from the Department of Political Science and Administration of the National University of Distance Education (UNED), who was vetoed by the commission last November, as Cañas recalled, analyzes the report on CatalanGate and concludes that "all type of irregularities and conflicts of interest".

Referring to Citizen Lab, Olivas' report indicates that "it may be acting in a biased and lax manner to help big tech companies and separatist political parties file legal claims."

"Citizen Lab references its prestige and reputation to dispel well-informed criticism and make up for the lack of transparency in its research.

This opacity affects not only the data and infection samples, but also information that does not constitute a threat to the privacy of the participants, such as when, how, where and who performed the forensic analysis."

Cañas intervention

After recalling that Citizen Lab "is a very influential actor in the field of cybersecurity, whose work is used as the basis of evidence in numerous parliamentary and judicial investigations and is reproduced by international media that have an impact on public opinion", the report highlights that the CatalanGate evidence "is clearly insufficient to formulate specific accusations, such as those directed against the Spanish Government".

smear campaign

For Professor Olivas, the CatalanGate report is "a key element of a political propaganda campaign whose objective is to present a wide network of politicians and activists as «victims» of the Spanish security forces. Some of these «victims» were supposedly involved in very serious crimes that sought to create a civil insurrection to achieve the secession of Catalonia".

For this, he remarks that "the publication dates of the Citizen Lab report in April 2022, as well as the announcements prior to July 2020, seem to coincide perfectly, helping these activists and politicians in their attempt to hide the negative effect of the revelations regarding collaboration with Russia, corruption and the coordination of violent groups to take control of the territory.

Among the conclusions of the report presented in the European Parliament, the "Pegasus case" commission is called for "an independent investigation of the processes followed in the Citizen Lab investigation" since "the lack of scientific rigor and the seriousness of the methodological issues and ethics" pointed out by Professor Olivas could cause "unwanted negative effects on third parties or undermine the reputation of the University of Toronto".

In addition, the academic extends the petition to the Parliament of Catalonia, which also has a commission open regarding the use of Pegasus allegedly to spy on the independence movement.

In this regard, he recalls that Citizen Lab did not physically examine any of the devices of "the alleged victims" nor was there an "independent verification by forensic experts with no prior affiliation or institutional ties to the Canadian research institute."

Cañas and Professor Olivas WORLD

"This analysis could also serve to rule out the massive manipulation of tests and the fabrication of positive results, taking advantage of the absence of a chain of custody of the tests," the report points out, recalling that Citizen Lab was reticent "to provide the information requested about the study de en Catalunya" which "collides with its public policy of accountability and transparency, and can be considered an anomaly in a research institution that can legitimately claim to be one of the best in the world".

"In no way can this Catalangate report be used as the basis of evidence for any type of commission or trial. It would not pass any type of peer review control at an academic level," recalled the author of this report, who questions the political use of the document.

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In this sense, he recalled that there are no elements to indicate that the author of the possible infection of mobile terminals with the spyware are representatives of the State.

no scientific method

In his speech, MEP Jordi Cañas remarked that Professor Olivas' investigation dismantles 'CatalanGate', for which reason he asked the European Parliament "not to assume secessionist propaganda".

"Pegasus will not be the Trojan horse of separatist victimhood in this Parliament," said Cañas, who recalled that Olivas was invited to participate in the parliamentary commission and later vetoed after a letter from various entities.

He also remarked that CatalanGate is full of "falsehoods" that separatism uses to "victimize" itself and attack Spanish institutions.

Thus, Cañas made it clear that this document presented by the independence movement "is loaded with falsehoods and infers things that cannot be proven. It directly accuses Spain of being responsible for illegal investigations that the truth denies."

For this reason, he urged the members of the commission to raise "doubts about the scientific method used by Citizen Lab and the conclusions that are derived."

The preliminary report of the Commission of Inquiry of the European Parliament on the espionage with the Pegasus software, by the Dutch liberal Sophie in 't Veld, confirms the espionage of 65 Catalan pro-independence leaders despite being based only on press articles and the report by CitizenLab.

"What an editor of a report cannot do is confuse his wishes with the truth, nor falsify the truth to justify his proposals," replied Cañas, who assured that the objective of sovereignism is to obtain a final report from the European Parliament that includes "lies " on espionage in Spain to later present it in the ongoing judicial processes and benefit the pro-independence leaders.

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