Moroccan Activists Targeted by Israeli Spyware, Amnesty International Reports

According to the NGO, two prominent human rights defenders in Morocco, academic Maati Monjib and lawyer Abdessadak El Bouchattaoui, have already been targeted by the "Pegasus" spyware developed by the Israeli company NSO group.

On several occasions, in 2017 in particular, malicious links would have been sent to the two activists. According to Amnesty International, "if they had clicked on them, they would have secretly installed the Pegasus software, allowing the sender to take almost complete control of their phone".

Knowing the reputation of NSO group, known for the "sale of its spy software to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies", Amnesty International says it fears that "the Moroccan security services are behind this surveillance".

Based on its research, the NGO has demonstrated, through new evidence, how the malicious NSO group software operates by facilitating "the repression of human rights defenders endorsed by states".

In this regard, Danna Ingleton, Deputy Director of Amnesty tech, described as a "horrific violation" the fact of "subjecting peaceful activists who denounce Morocco’s human rights record to acts of harassment or intimidation through invasive computer surveillance".

According to Amnesty International, several human rights defenders are the subject of reprisals carried out by the Moroccan authorities against them.

It cites as proof these people who defend "the growing repression against protesters in the Rif region, in the north of the country", stating that they are the subject of "harassment maneuvers, acts of intimidation and prison sentences".