The judge of the National audience José Luis Calama has investigation into alleged espionage reopened With the program Pegasus of the mobile phones of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and several ministers after receiving new information from France about a case related to this system developed in the neighboring country.
The magistrate investigated for almost a year the infection of Pedro Sánchez’s mobile phone through Pegasus on five occasions, and also of the Ministers of Defense, Margaret Robles; Inside, Fernando Grande-Marlaska; and Agriculture, Luis Planasbetween 2020 and 2021, although it ended up shelving the case due to the “absolute” lack of legal cooperation from Israel, the country where the NSO group, which has developed and marketed the program, has its registered office.
However, the judge has now received a European Investigation Order (EIO) from France that incorporates a case carried out in 2021 for multiple infections with Pegasus of phones of journalists, lawyers, public figures and governmental and non-governmental associations, as well as members of the French Government, ministers and deputies.
Information that, according to the judge, if compared with the results of the analyzes of the National Cryptological Center on the infected devices of the President of the Government and the ministers, can allow progress in the investigations of both countries to determine authorship.
“Therefore, it is possible to establish comparisons between the clues found on the different infested phones to identify a single source of infestation,” the judge maintains in decreeing the reopening.
