Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Cell Phone Infected With Pegasus, Spanish Government Fires Beard

JAKARTA - Spanish authorities have detected the "Pegasus" spyware on the phones of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Defense Minister Margarita Robles. This announcement was made by the government minister for the presidency, Felix Bolanos, Monday, May 2.

Bolanos told a press conference that Sanchez's phone was infected in May 2021 and at least one data leak had occurred at that time. He did not say who could spy on the prime minister or whether foreign or Spanish groups were suspected of being behind him.

"The intervention is illegal and external. External means are carried out by non-official bodies and without state permission," he said. He also added that the infection had been reported to the Spanish Ministry of Justice, and the High Court would take up the case.

The announcement followed intense pressure on the left coalition government to explain itself after Canadian digital rights group Citizen Lab said more than 60 people linked to the Catalan separatist movement had been targeted by the "Pegasus" spyware created by Israel's NSO Group.

Pegasus has been produced by NSO Gorup from Israel. However, the company, which has been blacklisted in the US, stated that so far they have only served clients from democratic governments, according to their standards.

NSO declined to announce which countries were their clients. NSO itself is facing various accusations in Israel because there are also high-ranking security officers in the country who are infected with Pegasus.

Pegasus itself is spyware that is claimed to be very dangerous because it can record and take pictures and videos from infected cellphones without the owner of the cellphone knowing it.

After accusations of spying on members of the Catalan separatist movement, a key ally of the minority government in parliament, the pro-independence leftist party ERC, said it would not support the government until Madrid took action to restore that trust.

"When there was mass surveillance of the Catalan independence movement, we only heard silence and excuses. Today everything was done in haste," Pere Aragones, president of the Catalan separatists, said Monday, May 2 in a statement. "But the double standard here is clear. . It seems that fighting any independence movement is welcome."

The European Union's data watchdog has also called for a ban on Pegasus over allegations it has been misused by client governments to spy on rights activists, journalists and politicians.