Spain’s government on Tuesday disclosed confidential information about the wiretapping of the cellphone of Pere Aragonés, president of Catalonia and leader of the separatist ERC party, by employees of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) using Israeli spy software Pegasus. They agreed to make the document public. The scandal known as “Porta Catalunya”.
In December last year, Aragonés accused the CNI of spying on his mobile phone with the Pegasus program between July 2018 and March 2020, when he was vice president of the Catalan region, Euractic partner EFE reported. Ta.
“It is proven that we were being spied on, it is confirmed by the independent experts Citizen Lab (“Catalunya Gate”), it is confirmed by the report of Mossos (Catalan Police), and therefore it is confirmed that they were initially “They have repeatedly confirmed that something happened that they had denied since then, and it is clear who did it, and neither the prosecutor nor the judge can hide it, and it will take too long,” said Patricia, a spokeswoman for the Catalan executive. Playa said Tuesday. El Periodico de Catalunya report.
Government Spokesperson Pilar Alegría (PSOE/S&D) said this was a “partial declassification” of classified documents that referred to spying on Aragonés, explaining that the government had decided on a request from a Spanish court. .
The spokesperson added that the declassification “in no way” affects Spain’s national security.
Aragones himself filed a lawsuit in July last year against Israeli group NSO, which sells the Pegasus system, and former CNI chief Paz Esteban, who was fired by the government days earlier after the spying scandal broke. Several Catalan separatist leaders, Mr. Sánchez and several ministers of his government.
The Catalan president then told the judge that he was the victim of three separate attacks on his mobile phone in early January 2020, coinciding with Sánchez’s inauguration. However, a subsequent expert report extended the period during which Pegasus could have compromised Aragones’ phone from July 2018 to March 2020.
The PSOE-Smaar coalition remains willing to declassify this classified document if requested by the courts, always with the necessary legal guarantees.
However, Prime Minister Alegría did not want to answer questions about the government’s declassification of further documents, but stressed that the Progressive Union is interested in clearing up this spying scandal as soon as possible.
“State Sewer”
The news of the partial declassification of classified documents comes just one day after a media leak about illegal investigations into Catalan separatist leaders during the government of former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (PP/EPP).
Playa stressed on Tuesday that if Rajoy “knew of and did not prevent” the actions of the so-called “patriotic police”, “he supported them and was complicit in them.”
“We are seeing criminal activity being identified from the structures and foundations of a nation that has become a rotting sewer. This is very serious and we need to know everything.” added the Catalan government spokesperson.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)
