Morocco Appeals Court Ruling in Pegasus Spyware Case Against Spanish Journalist

At the trial on January 3, Cembrero confirmed that Morocco was spying on him with this software and that he is the victim of judicial "harassment" by the kingdom that is harming him. For these reasons, he asked for Morocco’s complaint to be dismissed. In its ruling dated March 10, the Madrid Court of First Instance dismissed Morocco and ordered it to pay the trial costs, recalls EFE.

The Madrid judges ruled that Ignacio Cembrero’s statements accusing Morocco of having spied on his mobile phone using Pegasus do not authorize the kingdom to demand that he retract them, noting that the alleged facts are the result of an investigation conducted by a consortium of European journalists and raise questions in the Spanish and European Parliaments.

But the kingdom’s lawyers have decided to appeal this decision, because "although the court could not establish espionage by Morocco against Cembrero, it has incomprehensibly rejected the request." They also point out that the complaint "has nothing to do with the right to freedom of expression or the right to information."

"The law and justice will be restored, because Morocco does not have to bear a man who publicly claims to have been the victim of an illegal intrusion into his telephone, without there being any objective evidence to support his allegations, beyond his own belief..." add the kingdom’s lawyers, denouncing a violation of Articles 9.3 and 24 of the Spanish Constitution. The appeal was filed on April 13, a day after the Paris Court of Appeal dismissed Morocco in the same "Pegasus" case.