The phones of at least five French ministers and a diplomat serving in the French presidency had been hacked by Pegasus spyware, according to information posted on Mediapart’s website and confirmed by two sources.
Phones were infected in 2019 and 2020 and appeared traces of software developed by the Israeli company NSO during checks by the French security services, according to the website.
The five ministers are Jean-Michel Blanche (Education), Jacqueline Guro (Territorial Cohesion, Home Office), Julien Denarmadi (Agriculture since 2020, City and Housing before), Emanuel Wargon (formerly Steve, Metas Stegos, Ecologist) (Overseas Territories).
The diplomat belongs to the diplomatic service of the Elysee Palace and cooperates on international issues with President Emanuel Macron.
The surveillance scandal
An investigation published July 18 by a consortium of 17 international media outlets has revealed that Pegasus software, developed by the Israeli group NSO, has allowed 180 journalists, 600 politicians, 85 human rights activists and 65 executives to hack into and spy on the phones. in DIFFERENT countries.
The journalistic research work was based on a list of 50,000 telephone numbers selected by NSO customers since 2016 and was owned by Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International.
Numerous lawsuits have been filed in France by victims of the software.
Morocco has been accused of using the software, which Rabat denies, citing “false and baseless allegations” and sparking lawsuits in France, Spain and Germany.
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