Spain Investigates Alleged Moroccan Spying on Top Officials Using Pegasus Software

More new accusations of espionage against Morocco. According to the investigation by Forbidden Stories and its partners including the newspaper The Guardian, more than 200 Spanish numbers were targeted by a client of the Israeli company NSO group, Morocco, with a view to possibly infecting their phones with the powerful spyware Pegasus. These revelations were made after the Supreme Court (Spain) opened an investigation into how the phones of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and that of the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, were hacked, using the Israeli software Pegasus in May and June last.

On Monday, the Spanish government, during a press conference, refused to accuse a country or organization of espionage. Félix Bolaños, Minister of the Presidency, simply content to denounce "external intrusions, that is to say foreign to the State agencies and illegal, that is to say carried out without judicial authorization". On Tuesday, a judge of the Spanish Audiencia Nacional announced the opening of an investigation into "the discovery of a possible offense and the disclosure of secrets" relating to the use of Pegasus to infect the devices of Pedro Sánchez and Margarita Robles. The phone of Arancha González Laya, former Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, would also have been hacked using the Israeli software Pegasus.

The investigation by Forbidden Stories and its partners including The Guardian, Le Monde revealed that the Moroccan intelligence services had targeted 10,000 numbers mainly Moroccan, Algerian and French, with a view to potential surveillance. Accusations rejected outright by Morocco.