MADRID, 3 (EUROPE PRESS)
A report on the espionage program ‘Pegasus’, which has been published by the newspaper ‘The Guardian’, points to Morocco as a possible perpetrator of espionage on more than 200 Spanish mobile phones that would have been selected as surveillance targets by a client of the Israeli company NSO Group.
“The mobile number selections believed to have been made by Morocco occurred in 2019, based on timestamps in the data, which includes more than 50,000 numbers of individuals selected as potential surveillance targets by NSO clients around the world.” affirmed the British newspaper referring to a leaked report from the Forbidden Stories platform.
The Government announced this Monday that it had filed, through the State Attorney, a complaint for alleged espionage to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, through their mobile phones with the Pegasus program .
Specifically, the first of the intrusions would have occurred in the context of the massive entry of some 10,000 immigrants into Ceuta between May 17 and 18, which precisely led Sánchez to visit the autonomous city on this second day, as well as Melilla, with the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
In this context, and despite the fact that the Government has not wanted to speculate on who may have been behind the “external and illicit” espionage, the report alleges that the inclusion of more than 200 selected Spanish cell phones in the Pegasus project database ” believed” to be an action by Morocco.
“The client was apparently active in the search for possible targets for surveillance within Spain,” the report says, adding that although the number appears on the leaked list, it does not indicate that “in any way” it has been subject to surveillance with Pegasus.
In addition, the information published by the newspaper indicates that the choice of mobile numbers by, allegedly, Morocco occurred in 2019, according to temporary data that includes more than 50,000 numbers of people selected as possible surveillance targets by NSO clients throughout the world, including that of the Saharawi activist, Aminatou Haidar, and the journalist specializing in the Maghreb, Ignacio Cembrero.
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