Status: 04/19/2022 7:44 p.m
An affair about the alleged spying on Catalan separatists is threatening the Spanish government. According to one study, over 60 separatist leaders were under surveillance. The government denied the allegations.
Spanish authorities are said to have spied on dozens of leaders of the Catalan independence movement using Pegasus software. The government has “nothing to hide” and wants to cooperate with the judiciary, spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez assured. Without a court order, no conversations would be tapped in Spain, she asserted.
Cell phones hacked and bugged
According to a study by the Canadian research group Citizen Lab, which was published by the US magazine “The New Yorker”, more than 60 Catalan separatist leaders and some of their employees and families were systematically monitored. The cellphones of politicians, lawyers and activists were hacked and tapped between 2017 and 2020 using Israeli spyware Pegasus. The current Catalan regional president Pere Aragonès and his three predecessors Quim Torra, Carles Puigdemont and Artur Mas were among those affected.
“Massive violation of fundamental rights”
Puigdemont announced legal action in Brussels against all those responsible. He wants to initiate this in Spain as well as in Germany, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland. He called on EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to “act urgently” and hold Spain accountable for using the Pegasus program against political rivals. It is a “massive violation of fundamental rights”.
Along with other parties, the junior partner in Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s governing coalition, Unidas Podemos (UP), called for “clear explanations” and an in-depth investigation. If necessary, “heads would have to roll,” said UP spokesman Pablo Echenique.
In the report, entitled “How Democracies Spy on Their Citizens,” The New Yorker points out that the Israeli company NSO Group’s Pegasus spy software was used for surveillance. NSO Group insists the program will only be sold to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The renowned The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto had investigated Whatsapp vulnerabilities related to espionage.