Spain’s High Court has reopened an investigation into the deployment of Israeli cyber-intelligence firm, NSO Group’s Pegasus software, to spy on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and other Spanish politicians, according to a report released by Reuters.
The investigators are slated to share information with France, where politicians and other figures have also been targets of the software. The probe aims to figure out who was behind the spying operation, with no accusations being made to date.
In 2022, the Spanish government said software from NSO Group was used to spy on ministers, triggering a political crisis in Spain that led to the resignation of its spy chief.
The government did not elaborate on whether local or foreign agents were suspected of being behind the espionage.
The High Court started to investigate the matter but shelved the case last year after saying Israeli authorities did not cooperate.
Judge Jose Luis Calama has recently decided to reopen the case after France sent him details of its investigation into the use of the software. The details sent to the judge included spying on phones belonging to lawyers, reporters, public figures, as well as politicians and members of the French government in 2021.
French President Emmanuel Macron changed his cell phone and phone number in light of the Pegasus spyware case.
Calama says that comparing the Spanish findings with the technical data that France had sent could help move the case forward.
