Morocco Sues Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories Over Pegasus Spyware Allegations

In a statement, Olivier Baratelli, lawyer for Morocco, announced that the kingdom, accused of having used the Pegasus spying software, has decided to sue Amnesty and Forbidden Stories for defamation before the Paris Criminal Court, following the espionage allegations. In this regard, he has been mandated by Morocco and its ambassador to France, Chakib Benmoussa, to deliver "two direct summons for defamation" against Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories, the source of the revelations on the clients of this software designed by the Israeli company NSO to fight crime and terrorism.

"The Moroccan state intends to immediately seize the French justice system, because it wants all the light to be shed on the false allegations of these two organizations that put forward elements without the slightest concrete and demonstrated proof," continues Olivier Baratelli. According to the lawyer, "the Moroccan state considers that it is facing a new list affair and that the past has largely shown that it was easy to draw false conclusions from such practices." He deplores a "media, unfounded and clearly fabricated trial to destabilize the deep diplomatic relationship between Morocco and France." Moroccan intelligence services are accused of having hacked the numbers of 1,000 French people, including that of their president Emmanuel Macron.

[The Moroccan authorities have rejected these accusations]. Morocco "intends not to leave unpunished the multiple lies and fake news spread in recent days." On Wednesday, the presidency of the public prosecutor’s office gave written instructions to the Attorney General of the King near the Court of Appeal of Rabat to open a judicial investigation into these false allegations and accusations and to identify the parties behind their publication.