In Spain fired the head of intelligence because of the Pegasus spy program The new head of the National Intelligence Center of Spain will be the Secretary of State for Defense Esperanza Castelleiro
Paz Esteban Lopez
The Spanish government has sent the head of the Spanish National Intelligence Center (CNI) Paz Esteban Lopez resigned in connection with the appearance of information about the surveillance of Spanish officials using the Pegasus phone spyware, sources told Reuters, El País and El Español.
Suspicions against Paz Esteban arose after the publication of the results of its investigation by the Canadian digital rights group Citizen Lab. The researchers said that, together with Catalan civil society groups, they found at least 65 people with Pegasus and Candiru programs on their phones. We are talking about the phones of members of the European Parliament, presidents of Catalonia, legislators, lawyers and members of civil society organizations, Citizen Lab pointed out.
According to the agency’s interlocutors, Paz Esteban during a hearing in the Congress of Deputies of Spain (lower house of Parliament) last week admitted that the agency had listened to 18 leaders of the Catalan independence movement, but in each case – in accordance with the law and by court decision. The agency writes that Paz Esteban, in her speech to the Spanish Congress of Deputies, did not touch on the rest of the wiretapping allegations, the country’s government noted that it was investigating them.
As a result of the investigation, the Spanish authorities discovered the Pegasus spy program in the mobile phones of several ministers: the head of the government of the country Pedro Sanchez, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaski, Defense Minister Margarita Robles and Agriculture Minister and former Ambassador to Morocco Luis Planas, said the representative of the Spanish Cabinet Isabel Rodriguez during a briefing.
Paz Esteban became the head of the National Intelligence Center in 2020. The country’s Defense Minister Margarita Robles announced that she will be replaced by the Secretary of State for Defense Esperanza Castelleiro, reports El Periodico.
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The Pegasus software was developed by the Israeli company NSO Group. The company insists that the Pegasus software is designed to combat terrorism and crime.
Nevertheless, in the summer of 2021, the non-profit journalistic organization Forbidden Stories and The Washington Post, The Guardian, Haaretz and Les Echos, who joined the investigation, reported that the authorities of some countries used Pegasus to hack the phones of journalists and activists around the world.
Among those countries whose governments authorized the use of Pegasus against the press were Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, India, Israel, Bahrain, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
On November 3, 2021, the US Department of Commerce blacklisted NSO Group for actions in cyberspace that “threaten the interests of national security and foreign policy” of the country.
A month later, Bloomberg and the Financial Times, citing sources, reported that NSO Group was considering selling the company or closing its Pegasus division.
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