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An investigation by Canadian research institute Citizen Lab, cited by the New Yorker, found that in the past few years the phones of more than 60 prominent Catalan politicians, activists and journalists and those close to them have been intercepted, infected and spied on by the controversial “spyware” Pegasus, a software designed to spy on the activities on smartphones of terrorists and other criminals developed by NSO, a controversial Israeli company.
As early as July 2020, an investigation carried out by the Guardian together with the País revealed how the phones of the President of the Catalan Parliament Roger Torrent and at least three other people close to the independence government had been bugged in the previous year. But it is now known that the list of people spied on is much longer and that many of them were or were directly involved in the movement to gain independence from Spain: According to Citizen Lab, the Spanish government could be behind the wiretapping.
News of the release of the Citizen Lab report was exclusively published by The New Yorker on Monday, calling it the “largest series of attacks and interceptions of this nature documented to date.” The Canadian research institute, which defined the case as “CatalanGate,” instead succinctly noted that “every Catalan president since 2010 has been intercepted or infected with Pegasus during his term of office, before or after it ends.”
In addition to former Catalan presidents Artur Mas, Carles Puigdemont and Quim Torra, current Pere Aragonès has also been intercepted. Along with them, the phones of various Catalan parliamentarians, politicians and members of the European Parliament were also spied on, as well as the leaders of the two main civic organizations for Catalonia’s independence, Assemblea Nacional Catalana and Òmnium Cultural. In some cases, lawyers or family members of the people involved were also wiretapped, such as the journalist Marcela Topor, Puigdemont’s wife, who was spied on between 2019 and 2020.
According to the survey, at least 63 people were intercepted with Pegasus, at least four with another spyware called Candiru, and at least two with both.
Also read: The investigation of government spied smartphones of journalists and activists
Spyware like Pegasus and Candiru go undetected by antivirus programs and generally exploit software vulnerabilities (socalled “bugs”) to break into smartphones and gain access to images and even encrypted messages. For example, phones are infected through SMS containing fake links and pointing to infected websites: after that it is possible, among other things, to see the content but also to listen to phone conversations, remotely activate the microphone and camera, or content from their memory add or delete.
Officially, Pegasus is only sold to governments or state intelligence agencies for intercepting terrorists and criminals, but lately it has been observed to be widely used to spy on journalists, politicians and activists both in Europe and abroad. . Candiru, on the other hand, was founded in 2014 by two former NSO employees and could be found on the phones of Palestinian and Turkish citizens, for example.
Citizen Lab says there is currently no clear evidence that Catalan politicians and activists have been intercepted on behalf of any particular body, but argues that some elements would point to “a connection to the Spanish authorities” over a possible espionage operation for political ends. The hypothesis is that the Spanish government could have used this spyware to intercept people heavily involved in the process of gaining Catalonia’s independence.
Our latest research is a story about secret hacking skills, how a government used them and the threat they pose to fundamental rights and democracy. https://t.co/0EQu71zI7h
Citizen Lab (@citizenlab) April 18, 2022
Relations between Catalan separatists and Spanish governments both right and left have been strained for many years and have significantly deteriorated since the referendum on Catalonia’s independence organized in October 2017 by thenCatalan President Puigdemont without the authorization of the Madrid government deteriorated.
As explained by the País, Spanish intelligence has been monitoring the activities of the Catalan separatists since 2015, but the law allows the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia, the Spanish services, to intercept private communications only with the permission of a judge at the Tribunal supreme, the country’s highest judicial body. The license must also be renewed every three months.
In any case, sources from the Interior Ministry argued that “neither the Ministry, nor the national police, nor the Guardia Civil [un corpo della gendarmeria spagnola con funzioni di polizia militare, ndr] they have never had any connection with NSO and therefore have never used his services”. For its part, NSO does not disclose the names of its clients for reasons of confidentiality; however, on the basis of some unofficial reconstructions already published in 2020, among these would be the Spanish government.
L’operació d’espionatge massiu contra independentisme català és una vergonya unjustified. Un atac than drets fonamentals ia la democràcia extremadament greu. An example of mes de la repressió contra un moviment pacífic i cívic. Arribarem fins on Calgui.
Pere Aragonès i Garcia 🎗 (@perearagones) April 18, 2022
The report’s release sparked outraged comments from Catalan separatists and civil rights groups, who have slammed the alleged wiretapping by the Spanish government.
Aragonès, the current president of the Catalan government, wrote on Twitter that “the mass espionage operation against the Catalan independence movement is an inexcusable shame. An extremely serious attack on fundamental rights and democracy ». Puigdemont instead defined the intercepted individuals as “victims of the Spanish state’s dirty war against a legitimate idea” and likened their treatment to that of members of the Basque terrorist organization ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna), which has maintained the independence of the Basque country for over forty years.
Amnesty International also commented on the matter, independently reviewed the Citizen Lab report and was able to verify evidence of attacks and wiretapping in all cases found by the institute. Amnesty called on the Spanish government to clarify whether it used Pegasus or other spyware to intercept Catalan politicians, activists and journalists, and called on it to launch “a detailed and independent investigation” into the cases of those identified by Citizen Lab to investigate.
Hem espiats de manera massiva i il legal a través d’un programa que només poden tenir els Estats. Politicians, lawyers and activists, victims of the brutal wars of Espanyol per lluitar against a legitimate idea. #Catalan Goalhttps://t.co/GcnbCst2kh
krls.eth / Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) April 18, 2022
Also read: The end of the ETA