Spanish prime minister’s phone ‘targeted with Pegasus spyware’

The phones of other members of the government are being examined to determine whether they may also have been targeted.

The Catalan regional government has pointed the finger at Spain's National Intelligence Centre (CNI), which insists its operations are overseen by the supreme court and that it acts "in full accordance with the legal system, and with absolute respect for the applicable laws".

The Spanish government has promised an internal CNI investigation into the alleged targeting of Catalan activists, while Spain's public ombudsman has also opened an independent investigation.

The Catalan president said in a statement: "Any political espionage is extremely serious. We reported spying a few days ago but were not given an explanation by the Spanish government. When it's massive spying on Catalan institutions and the independence movement, it was all silence and excuses. With this, it's all moving very fast. Responsibility needs to be established straight away. A thorough, independent investigation remains urgent and responsibility needs to be taken."

NSO Group said in a statement it would investigate "any suspicion of misuse" of its software, and would cooperate with any governmental investigation.

"While we have not seen any information related to this alleged misuse and we are not familiar with the details of this specific case, NSO's firm stance on these issues is that the use of cyber tools in order to monitor politicians, dissidents, activists and journalists is a severe misuse of any technology and goes against the desired use of such critical tools," said a spokesperson.

"NSO is a software provider; the company does not operate the technology nor is privy to the collected data. The company does not and cannot know who the targets of its customers are, yet implements measures to ensure that these systems are used solely for the authorised uses."

NSO Group claims Pegasus is sold only to governments to track criminals and terrorists. A joint investigation two years ago by the Guardian and El Pais established that the speaker of the Catalan regional parliament and at least two other pro-independence supporters were warned the spyware had been used to target them.

NSO group was placed on a US blacklist in November 2021, three months after a consortium of journalists working with the French non-profit group Forbidden Stories revealed multiple cases of journalists and activists who were hacked by foreign governments using the spyware, including American citizens.

The Guardian and other members of the consortium also revealed that the mobile numbers of Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and almost his entire cabinet appeared on a leaked list of individuals who were selected as possible targets of surveillance.

NSO has said its spyware is used by foreign government clients to target serious criminals. It has also denied that any of its clients ever targeted Macron or any French government officials.