French President Emmanuel Macron and King Mohammed VI of Morocco are on the list of potential targets for the Pegasus software, media members of the consortium that revealed the scandal of spying on journalists, activists, or politicians.
The case, revealed on Sunday, is now in the hands of French justice which opened an investigation Tuesday to examine the complaint of journalists spied on using software from the Israeli firm NSO. The revelations, in this case, accuse Morocco, which rejects any accusation.
But on Tuesday, the daily Le Monde, a member of the media consortium, revealed that numbers of Emmanuel Macron as well as those of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and 14 members of the government, appeared in the list of numbers selected by a Moroccan state security service, the user of Pegasus spyware, for potential hacking.
We found these phone numbers, but we were unable to make a technical investigation on Emmanuel Macron’s phone to check if he had been infected by this software and therefore it does not tell us if the president has been spied on, explained Laurent Richard, director of the Forbidden Stories organization. This, along with Amnesty International, has obtained a list of 50,000 phone numbers selected by NSO clients since 2016 and shared it with a consortium of 17 media outlets.
If the facts are true, they are very serious. All light will be shed on these press revelations, reacted the French presidency, questioned by AFP.
Moreover, according to this time the investigation cell of Radio France, the King of Morocco Mohammed VI, and his entourage are also on the list of potential targets.
According to the Washington Post, another member of the consortium, the list contains the numbers of two other presidents, Iraqi Barham Saleh, and South African Cyril Ramaphosa.
The American daily also put forward the names of three sitting prime ministers, those of Pakistan, Imran Khan, Egyp: Mostafa Madbouli, and Morocco: Saad-Eddine El Othmani, and a total of seven prime ministers at the time. where they were selected on the list, including the Lebanese Saad Hariri, the Ugandan Ruhakana Rugunda, and the Belgian Charles Michel.
Also targeted, according to the consortium’s revelations, by the Pegasus software used by the Mexican government when he was the head of the opposition to President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), the current President of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reacted on Tuesday.
“Espionage must be used to fight crime, protect citizens, and not monitor opponents, political leaders, party leaders, bosses of big companies, churches.” Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, President of Mexico
Complaints against Morocco
On Sunday, the media group revealed that two journalists from Mediapart including the founder of the French news site Edwy Plenel were among the more than 180 journalists spied on around the world on behalf of different states, in this case by Morocco. The news site filed a complaint on Monday.
Also targeted by this espionage attributed to Morocco, the weekly Le Canard enchaîné decided to file a complaint as well.
The Reporters Without Borders association has finally announced that it has filed a complaint in Paris, before others internationally. RSF defends the Franco-Moroccan journalists Omar Brouksy and Maâti Monjib, opponents and victims of the software.
For Mediapart, this espionage was intended to try to silence independent journalists in Morocco, by seeking to know how we were investigating in this area.
This information is false allegations devoid of any foundation, defended the Moroccan government.
According to the investigation published on Sunday by a consortium of 17 international media outlets, the Pegasus software, developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, would have made it possible to spy on the numbers of at least 180 journalists, 600 politicians, 85 activists of the human rights or 65 business leaders from different countries.
Pegasus, introduced into a smartphone, allows you to retrieve messages, photos, contacts, and even listen to calls from its owner.
These revelations sparked outrage from human rights organizations, the media, and political leaders around the world.
NSO, regularly accused of playing the game of authoritarian regimes, assures that its software is used only to obtain information against criminal or terrorist networks.
