Amnesty International Targets Israel and Morocco with Spyware Accusations

When non-profits, backed by millions of dollars from U.S. and U.K. donors, go to war with small countries, those governments often lose their reputations and revenue from foreign investors. Usually, this asymmetric warfare favors the non-profit.

Then the tide turned.

After Amnesty International, a London-based human-rights group, accused Morocco of hacking the smartphone of dissident journalist Omar Radi using an Israeli company’s spyware, it expected an easy win.

The group issued an elaborate report on June 22 alleging Radi’s iPhone had “traces” of the spyware produced by NSO Group, which has links to Israel’s elite 8200 intelligence unit.

Radi has long been critical of Morocco’s elected government, and was arrested for criticizing a judge’s ruling in a tweet.

In Morocco’s capital Rabat, the kingdom’s prime minister demanded proof from Amnesty International. “We, in the Moroccan government, are still insisting on [Amnesty International] providing us with a copy of the report of the scientific expertise that was adopted to make these unfounded accusations,” said Morocco’s Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani in a response to a question from the country’s official news agency.

The acting prime minister also questioned why Amnesty International did not make more of an effort to contact the government, accusing the organization of sending emails to accounts of government officials that are policed by spam filters instead of using its own representatives in Morocco to address the issue with officials.

Danna Ingleton, the deputy director of Amnesty Tech, told Zenger News, Amnesty International provided the government with “ample evidence of the targeting” of Radi and is assessing its next steps.