Extensive spying of the Polish government with the Israeli Pegasus software

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency quoting “Spiegel” weekly newspaper, the Polish public prosecutor’s office expressed confidence that from 2017 to 2023, the then Polish government led by the then ruling Law and Justice party had 578 people using the Israeli spy software Pegasus, including prominent politicians from its ranks. The purpose of spying and surveillance.

This is considered a serious and explosive revelation. Poland’s former conservative Nationalist government of the now-voted-out opposition Law and Justice party is said to have spied on hundreds of people using Israeli spying software Pegasus. Between 2017 and 2023, the software was used to monitor 578 people, according to the Warsaw Prosecutor General’s Office in a report to parliament published on Tuesday.

A parliamentary investigative committee in Poland is currently investigating whether the ruling Law and Justice Party government, which was in office until December, used Pegasus to spy on political opponents. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the Law and Justice Party at the time, denied the espionage allegations. According to Polish media reports, there are now even indications that the PiS government has also used the software to monitor prominent politicians from its ranks.

last week , “Adam Bodnar”, the Minister of Justice of Poland, announced that 31 people who were targeted by the Pegasus attacks will receive a summons from the public prosecutor’s office to testify as witnesses.

“Christophe Briza”, a member of the European Parliament, later announced that he had received such a summons. Briza belongs to Donald Tusk’s Conservative Liberal Citizens Coalition. He managed the election campaign of his party, which was part of the opposition at the time, ahead of the 2019 parliamentary elections. According to Polish media reports, in addition to Bryza, the prosecutor who had criticized the PiS government’s judicial reforms, and prominent opposition lawyer Roman Girtych were also spied on by Pegasus.

Journalists, human rights organizations, and data forensics experts first reported on the Israeli spyware in July 2021. Around the world, authoritarian governments in particular have used this surveillance software on a large scale against critics, opposition figures, and journalists. Pegasus exploits smartphone security vulnerabilities to gain massive access to data. It is also possible to listen to the conversations.

Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, said a while ago: I have documents in my hand that unfortunately 100 Pegasus illegal use of documents and confirms confidential information, unfortunately the list of victims of these actions is very long.

“Pegasus” is a program developed by the Israeli company NSO Group Technologies. This program was considered a valuable tool for intelligence agencies because it could be installed remotely on the smartphone of a person who was targeted for espionage.

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