Pegasus case: the Paris prosecutor’s office opens an investigation into the espionage of journalists

Published on : 07/20/2021 – 11:36

A long list of offenses. The Paris prosecutor’s office announced, Tuesday, July 20, the opening of an investigation for espionage of journalists with Israeli spyware Pegasus, following the complaint filed the day before by Mediapart and two of its journalists. The magistrates will in particular investigate the infiltration of telephones on behalf of the Moroccan state, which disputes the accusations published in the press.

Several media including Le Monde, the Guardian and the Washington Post revealed on Sunday that the founder of Mediapart, Ewdy Plenel, and the journalist of his media, Lénaïg Bredoux, had been spied on by the Moroccan secret services.

Following these revelations, “a complaint was filed Monday by the two journalists and the publisher of Mediapart”. The Paris prosecutor’s office has therefore today opened an investigation into the counts of invasion of privacy, fraudulent access to technological systems and criminal association, among others, announces the public prosecutor, Rémy Heitz, in a statement.

This investigation was opened for a long list of ten offenses including “invasion of privacy”, “interception of correspondence”, “fraudulent access” to a computer system and “criminal association”.

The Chained Duck also targeted

Le Canard Enchaîné, for its part, would have been targeted in particular through its former collaborator Dominique Simmonnot, now controller general of places of deprivation of liberty, who also announced that she would personally take legal action.

According to the survey released on Sunday, the Pegasus software has been used by several countries around the world for successful hacking attempts of smartphones belonging to government officials, journalists and human rights activists. ‘Man.

NSO assures that its software is intended only for government intelligence services and law enforcement agencies to help them fight crime and terrorism.

With Reuters and AFP