Morocco Challenges Pegasus Spyware Accusations, Demands Evidence from NGOs

Since the outbreak of the Pegasus espionage affair, Morocco has multiplied legal attacks in France against the media that have revealed or denounced the affair, in particular through defamation proceedings. Me Olivier Baratelli is surprised that despite the uproar made by Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories, these two organizations have not been able to provide the evidence to support their accusations.

"In the news we have two things, the ten-day deadline by which Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories could prove what they were claiming has expired, they haven’t produced anything. The situation is absurd, it shows that this affair is a hoax. The second news is that Morocco has seized the French justice system, but also the German and Spanish justice systems," said Me Baratelli.

In addition to having seized the courts, Morocco has also engaged to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the whole affair is nothing but a grotesque setup, a plot to undermine the relations between Morocco and its everyday partner, France. "I will hand over to the Paris public prosecutor’s office an IT expert report drawn up by a panel of experts, including two experts from the Court of Appeal, who will rule out any use of this software by Morocco," the lawyer points out.

At the end of July, Me Baratelli announced that he had issued four new direct citations for defamation. Two of them target the daily Le Monde, a third pursues Mediapart and the last attacks Radio France. For his part, the Moroccan Minister of the Interior, Abdelouafi Laftit, filed a complaint in Paris for slanderous denunciation against Mediapart and its editor-in-chief Edwy Plenel, announced the minister’s lawyer, Me Rodolphe Bosselut. The minister denounces a media campaign and turns to justice.