Morocco Denies Pegasus Spyware Use, Demands Proof from NGOs in Legal Challenge

"Morocco has never called upon the NSO company and has never used the Pegasus software," the lawyer hammered, confirming what the authorities in Rabat have always stated since the beginning of this affair. For Me Baratelli, the two NGOs at the heart of these defamatory statements have "ten days, according to the 1881 law on freedom of the press, to provide the evidence they have or do not have." "The French justice system has been seized. A judicial countdown has just begun," he declared on BFM TV.

He stated that Morocco has nothing to do with this matter and that his role will be to "counter these rumors which are totally unfounded." He does not understand how international organizations could have invented such things with the sole purpose of sabotaging the good neighborly relations that Morocco maintains with certain countries, including France. "It is absurd to imagine that Morocco could have placed under surveillance or heard or infected a telephone like that of the French Head of State," declared Olivier Baratelli before alerting the media to the spread of unfounded rumors that are based neither on "evidence" nor on "tangible elements," reports BFM TV.

This is why "Morocco, its government, through its ambassador to France Chakib Benmoussa, have asked me to initiate two heavy criminal proceedings against those who are the source of these rumors," namely Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories, before the Paris Criminal Court. Morocco has been asking Amnesty International for two years to provide the evidence of what it is claiming without success.

Given the alarming proportions that these rumors are taking, the Kingdom of Morocco "intends not to leave unpunished the multiple lies and fake news spread in recent days." A first procedural hearing is scheduled for October 8, the lawyer mandated by Morocco announced.