The two spokespersons for the Sanchez government announced this on the morning of May 2 during an exceptional press conference, hastily organized on a public holiday, since May 2 is a public holiday in Spain. The conclusion of the Spanish intelligence services is clear: Pedro Sanchez’s mobile phone was indeed infected twice in May and June of last year, each time by the Pegasus software. If we are to believe the big daily El País, the amount of data stolen is considerable, especially during the first intrusion: between two and three gigabytes. Defense Minister Margarita Robles’ mobile phone was also briefly hacked last June. And all the cell phones of other members of the government are being checked.
Madrid claims not to know what the nature of the data recovered is, and in particular their degree of confidentiality. But in any case, these are “facts of enormous gravity”, according to one of the spokespersons Felix Bolanos. And he adds: “We have absolute certainty that this is an external attack”. In other words, espionage carried out by foreign services.
The Spanish government does not name anyone. But we spontaneously think of Morocco, one of the main countries singled out in this gigantic telephone tapping scandal, unveiled last summer by a consortium of international media including the Investigation Cell of Radio France. At the time of the hacking of Pedro Sanchez’s phone, Spain and Morocco were at loggerheads over the migrant issue: Rabat had deliberately let 8,000 people join the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. Along with Mexico, India and Saudi Arabia, Morocco is one of the countries to have used the software the most. But he categorically denies the facts.
In total, nearly 50,000 people have been targeted by this Israeli Pegasus software, mainly political leaders, journalists, business leaders, NGO managers. Pegasus, once introduced into a mobile phone, allows access to all the messaging systems on it, including encrypted messaging services like Whatsapp. The software also allows remote triggering of the smartphone’s microphone and camera. Several investigations have been launched, in several countries, in France by the Paris prosecutor’s office since last summer. The European Parliament also opened an investigation in April.
In the case of Spain, it’s a bit of a sprinkler, because the Spanish government is also suspected of having used Pegasus against 65 leaders or activists of the independence cause in Catalonia between 2017 and 2020. Again, Pegasus software was spotted in their cellphones. In Madrid, the government denies any responsibility. An internal investigation has been opened within the Spanish National Intelligence Center, the CNI. Obviously the Catalan leaders, Pedro Aragones and Carlos Puigdemont denounce a “double standard”. They accuse the Spanish government of resorting to the same methods of espionage as those of which it claims to be a victim. It’s bound to be embarrassing for Madrid.