With the Pegasus project, it is a real large-scale hunt that the Moroccan power would have orchestrated against journalists, politicians, intellectuals, French citizens (more than a thousand) according to the investigation of the Forbidden media consortium Stories which include journalists from the New York Times, Le Monde, Radio France or The Guardian.
Overwhelmed, Morocco ended up breaking its silence by denouncing these accusations of espionage, while France has just convened a council exceptional defense under the supervision of the Head of State. Decryption with Master Joseph Breham, a French lawyer symbolic victim of a case that has become a scandal.
You are one of the French personalities whose phones have been targeted by Morocco using Pegasus spyware in the light of the investigations of the media consortium Forbidden Stories and Amnesty. Do you understand this massive piracy of a so-called “partner” country?
Master Joseph Breham: Nothing, never whatever the circumstances, can justify that men and women, journalists, lawyers, elected officials, are spied in their privacy. By choosing to lead a massive campaign of espionage of French citizens – from Moroccan soil – against whom no offense can be blamed, the Moroccan government made an extremely strong political choice: the violation of the privacy of its own citizens is the marker of dictatorial regimes. In this case, what about the massive espionage of citizens of a so-called “partner” country?
It is to be hoped that the French authorities will use all their political, diplomatic, and intelligence resources so that Morocco stops this industrial espionage and these hostile acts.
The editors of the World, the chained duck, the Agence France-Presse, of France Televisions or even Mediapart confirmed to be concerned. Why are journalists a prime target for the Moroccan monarchy?
JB: It is indisputable that journalists are, in France, the majority targets of what emerges from the report. For Morocco, tourism is its main source of currency, hence the fundamental question of cultivating a positive image, while quietly oppressing. Local authorities, therefore, fear freedom of expression: the prosecution of the few Moroccan journalists who dared to investigate, write and denounce are eloquent like the journalist and human rights defender, Omar Radi, recently sentenced to six years in prison. for “endangering the security of the State” among other things.
In fact, spying on French journalists makes it possible to ensure that investigations into corruption, torture, and Moroccan social discontent (including the movement of Morocco) will not be published in France – and therefore reported on the other side of the Mediterranean. autonomy of the Rif) and to nurture the fantasy of a postcard country. Anyone working on political issues in Morocco: be it human rights, the Sahrawi issue, or the Rif knows that behind the postcard hides a fierce security apparatus. This is not new, I will recall Gilles Perrault’s book “Our friend the king” which had documented the forgotten prisons, systematic torture, etc.
Since then, the Moroccan authorities, that is to say, the palace and those close to the king, have implemented a two-sided policy with the head of the Moroccan Directorate-General for the surveillance of the territory, Abdellatif Hammouchi, in charge.
Rabat appears – still according to this report – as one of the main customers of this misguided technology to infect telephones remotely via malware ( software allowing to take control of a mobile phone, to extract emails, photos, directory and even activate the microphone and the camera. Encrypted messaging is also infiltrated ). Today there is even talk of the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, one of whose phones has allegedly been identified. Disclosures that led to the holding of an exceptional defense council.
JB: Obviously, it is unbearable for a country called an “ally” to spy on our president. However, I hope – but perhaps I am a die-hard optimist – that this will be too much espionage. That faced with this affront and this contempt, France will react.
© Master Joseph Breham
Overwhelmed, Morocco ended up breaking its silence by denouncing the investigation. Can this angle of defense resist the investigations carried out by the Consortium, which includes journalists from institutions such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Le Monde, The Guardian, Radio France… ) who maintain their accusations with force?
JB: It is enough to read the technical report published by Amnesty International to make sure that the spies from the soil of the Shereefian kingdom are indisputable and proven. As for the people I know, who would benefit from listening to Ms. Claude Mangin? A retired French citizen, history teacher, whose only fault is to have married Naama Asfari, militant of the Sahrawi cause, sentenced to 30 years in prison after a “trial” unanimously described as a farce? Morocco has the right to contest, justice will dismiss its defamation actions. Justice will shed light on the people who gave the orders.
Do you think that the progression of poverty and the social rebellion against the background of a pandemic, exacerbate this nervousness and these drifts against press freedom, as well as the migratory pressure on Spain and Europe?
Mr. JB: Since Hassan II, Morocco has chosen to suppress all forms of social protest. There was a vague hope, quickly showered, at the coronation of Mohamed VI.
Mediapart and Le Canard Enchaîné have also announced the filing of a complaint. What follow-up do you plan to give to this affair?
The espionage of which I was the object, as well as Mrs. Claude Mangin seems to be consecutive, in particular, to the referral of the United Nations committee against torture carried out for Mr. Naama ASFARI, we have therefore already seized the committee to rule on these reprisals. At the same time, my lawyer Me Noémie Saidi Cottier filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office.
