Spain announces probes into alleged spying on Catalan separatists
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Loading... - Susan McCartney
- 25 Apr 2022
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Spain’s government has announced investigations into the country’s intelligence services after a rights group said spyware had been used to hack the telephones of Catalan separatist leaders.spy
Investigators at Canada’s Citizen Lab said on Sunday that the mobile phones of at least 65 Catalan politicians – including the Catalonia region’s current leader – had been affected.
In most cases the Pegasus malware, made by Israel’s NSO Group, had been used following Catalonia’s controversial 2017 independence referendum declared illegal by Madrid, said the group.
Citizen Lab, which focuses on high-tech human rights abuses, said it could not directly attribute the spying operations, but that circumstantial evidence pointed to Spanish authorities.
Catalan leaders have accused the Spanish government of being behind the illegal operation.
“The government has a clear conscience and nothing to hide,” said Spain’s presidency minister Felix Bolanos, announcing a series of investigations into the affair.
Bolanos promised an “internal investigation” within the National Intelligence Centre, which would report to a parliamentary commission allowing legislators to access classified information.
Spain’s rights ombudsman will also open an independent investigation, he added, vowing to “collaborate with justice by declassifying documents if necessary”.
Bolanos announced the investigations after an emergency meeting with his counterpart in Catalonia’s pro-independence regional administration, Laura Vilagra.
Vilagra called the promises “vague”, saying they did not go far enough. Catalonia’s executive continues to demand the identification of those responsible and their resignations.
The pro-independence Catalan party propping up Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority socialist coalition could not “guarantee” their support amid the ongoing uncertainty, she said.
Catalan and Basque separatist parties – including Catalan leader Pere Aragones’s left-wing republican formation – are part of Spain’s coalition government. Read More…
