The personal smartphones of leading Catalan pro-independence politicians were hacked using a highly invasive software built by a controversial Israeli firm, according to an investigative report by two newspapers.
The revelation is likely to reignite a
tense row between Madrid and pro-independence activists in one of the
country’s wealthiest regions, which led to a major political crisis in
2017.
An estimated 50 percent of the population
of the autonomous Spanish region of Catalonia wishes to secede from
Spain. However, Madrid refused to recognize the legitimacy of an
independence referendum organized by secessionist activists in 2017. The
stalemate led to massive protests throughout the country, which were
marred by violence and thousands of arrests, as Spain faced its deepest
political crisis since the 1970s. In response to the protests, the
central government suspended Catalonia’s autonomous status and arrested
many of the independent movement’s leaders. Many of them have been given
lengthy jail terms, while others remain abroad and are wanted by the
Spanish government for promoting insurrection.
On Monday, British newspaper The Guardian and Spanish newspaper El País revealed the results of a joint investigation,
according to which the smartphones of senior Catalan pro-independence
politicians were targeted by hackers in 2019, and possibly even earlier.
Among them was Roger Torrent, who serves as the speaker of the
Parliament of Catalonia. The newspapers said he had been alerted to the
hacking by cybersecurity employees of WhatsApp, a Facebook-owned company
whose application was allegedly used by the hackers to take control of
Torrent’s phone.
The software that was allegedly used to
hack the Catalan politicians’ phones was Pegasus. It was built by NSO
Group, an Israeli software development company that specializes in
surveillance technologies. According to WhatsApp, which sued NSO Group in 2019,
NSO Group specifically developed the Pegasus hacking platform to enable
its users to exploit flaws in WhatsApp’s servers and to gain access to
the telephone devices of targeted individuals. Pegasus allegedly allows
its users to covertly operate a compromised phone’s camera and
microphone.
Several human rights groups and university researchers have alleged
that Pegasus is being used by authoritarian regimes around the world to
spy on journalists, political activists and the lawyers who defend
them. But NSO Group, whose clientele consists exclusively of government
agencies, denies any wrongdoing and claims its products are designed to
help governments around the world spy on terrorists and criminals.
The latest allegations point to the
government of Spain as the culprit of the espionage attacks against
Catalan independence activists. If proven to be true, they would mark
the first time that a member of the European Union has been associated
with the controversial Pegasus software. Speaking on Monday, Torrent
said the revelations “conclusively prove” what “many of us already knew
and have been denouncing for a long time”, namely that “espionage
against political opponents is practiced in Spain”.
Spanish authorities, including a
spokesman from the Office of the Prime Minister, have denied being
behind the espionage attacks. Spain’s primary intelligence service, the
National Intelligence Center, issued a statement on Monday saying that
it operates “in full accordance with the legal system” and under the
supervision of the Supreme Court of Spain.
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