Neither the independence leaders were spied on with this tool nor were the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, the only leaders spied on with Pegasus, the controversial tool of the Israeli firm NSO Group.
Last year, with the 'Pegasus Project' investigation -in which dozens of journalists participated with the support of Amnesty International- , it became known that on the list of those possibly affected by the espionage program there would be nearly 50,000 telephone numbers, where there were those of fourteen heads of state, who were selected by clients of the NSO Group company as persons of interest.
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Affected countries included Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, India and the United Arab Emirates. In total, the list contained the phone numbers of more than 600 high-ranking government and political figures from 34 countries. Among the international leaders spied on were the President of France, Emmanuel Macron -who was allegedly watched by Morocco-; the one from Iraq, Barham Salih ; the one from South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa ; and the former president of Morocco, Saad-Eddine El Othmani.
The 'Pegasus' program also spied on the King of Morocco, Mohamed VI; to the prime ministers of Pakistan, Imran Khan; those who were Prime Minister of Egypt Mostafa Madbouly; from Lebanon Saad Hariri; from Uganda Ruhakana Rugunda; and from Belgium and current President of the European Council, Charles Michel. It also served to keep tabs on former Indian National Congress Party Chairman Rahul Gandhi.
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In addition, this year it has become known that Israeli software was used to spy on the official residence of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in an attack allegedly carried out by the United Arab Emirates, according to research by Citizen Lab.
Spying on Khashoggi's family
Spyware was also used to attack the phones of activists and journalists . Amnesty International considered that the use of the 'Pegasus' program "facilitated the commission of large-scale human rights violations throughout the world."
The journalistic investigation also revealed that before and after the murder of Saudi Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 at the hands of Saudi agents, spyware targeted members of the journalist's family. Specifically, 'Pegasus' had been installed on the phone of Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi's fiancee, four days after his murder.
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His wife, Hanan Elatr, was also attacked with the software, while their son Abdullah was singled out as a potential target along with other family members. Along the same lines, Saudi Arabia used the espionage program in 2018 to attack tycoon Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and the Washington Post, which was the newspaper Khashoggi worked for.
Likewise, 'Pegasus' spied on US diplomatic personnel, which led the Biden Administration to include the company NSO Group -manufacturer of the software- on a blacklist. In Israel, where the tool was created, the use of 'Pegasus' also caused a scandal, after it became known in early 2022 that the police had been following and listening to various public figures, including the son of the The country's former prime minister and current opposition leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, and members of his inner circle.
Likewise, they also spied on general directors of ministries, mayors, protest leaders, activists, journalists and even a witness in one of the corruption cases against Netanyahu.
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