Morocco Accused of Using Pegasus Spyware on Journalists Across North Africa and France

In total, 10,000 numbers, mainly Moroccan, Algerian and French, were targeted. According to the findings of the investigation, the Moroccan intelligence services targeted French journalists from the newspaper Le Monde, France Télévisions, France 24, with a view to possibly infecting their phones with the powerful spyware Pegasus, reports France info. Information confirmed by Amnesty International’s Security Lab, a technical partner of the consortium formed by Forbidden Stories. According to the organization, phones have been infected and French people have been spied on.

The analysis of the Iphones of the five French journalists or media bosses testifies to this. These are the former judicial columnist of the Canard enchaîné, Dominique Simonnot, who has since become general controller of places of deprivation of liberty; the director of the radio station TSF Jazz, Bruno Delport, who has been carrying out humanitarian actions in Morocco for three years, in particular in favor of prostitutes; the Mediapart journalist, Lenaïg Bredoux, who deals with issues of sexual violence and who also, a few years ago, investigated the head of the Moroccan intelligence services; the co-founder of the newspaper Mediapart, Edwy Plenel and a journalist from Le Monde who wished not to be named.

The number of Rosa Moussaoui, senior reporter at L’Humanité, who investigated the case of Omar Radi - a Moroccan journalist prosecuted for "rape" and "undermining the internal security of the State", with "foreign financing" - was also targeted for infection by Pegasus. "It is a form of intrusion into the work of a journalist of unheard-of violence. It’s as if I had been burgled, it’s a violation of intimacy," denounces the journalist. "At each of my reports in Morocco, I undergo close, physical, visible surveillance, but it’s not the same when you see them. Here, this invisibility frightens me," she continues.

In Morocco, the investigation reveals that the numbers of dozens of journalists and human rights activists have been selected for possible targeting by Pegasus, software designed to fight crime and terrorism. Among them, the number of Omar Brouksy, former AFP correspondent. "I wouldn’t even say I’m shocked, because in an authoritarian regime, such practices are not surprising. On the other hand, it saddens me for journalism. In a country like Morocco, freedom, independence are paid for at a high price. When you want to do this job well, you know you have to pay this price almost daily," reacts the author of several books on the monarchy, banned in Morocco.