The Spanish government on Tuesday categorically denied having spied on dozens of Catalan independence leaders, who accused Madrid of hacking into their mobile phones with Pegasus software. Spain “is a democratic country and a state of law, in which we do not spy, we do not intercept conversations, we do not wiretap, except within the framework of the law”, Government spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez said on Tuesday.
At least 65 Catalan separatists spied on according to “Citizen Lab”
The Catalan independence movement on Monday accused Madrid of illegally spying on dozens of its leaders by installing Pegasus software on their cellphones, after the publication of a report by a Canadian organization documenting the alleged facts.
According to this report – written by “Citizen Lab”, a Canadian organization based at the University of Toronto – at least 65 Catalan separatists were spied on between 2017 and 2020.
Among those targeted are the current Catalan regional president Pere Aragonés (who was number two in the region at the time), the former regional presidents Quim Torra and Artur Mas, as well as MEPs, regional deputies and members of separatist civil organizations.
“The government has nothing to hide”
Former regional president Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium in October 2017 to escape Spanish justice after Catalonia’s attempted secession, was not directly spied on but many of his relatives, including his wife, the have been, specifies the Canadian organization.
“The government has nothing to do” with these accusations and “has nothing to hide”, insisted its spokesperson Isabel Rodríguez, affirming that the executive “will collaborate as much as possible with justice to investigate these facts” if the courts so require. The NGO Amnesty International called in a press release on Monday to “end the abuse of spyware”.
In the summer of 2021, an extensive media investigation revealed that the Pegasus software had made it possible to spy on the phones of journalists, politicians, activists or business leaders from different countries. Catalonia, a region in northeastern Spain, has been the scene for several years of a political crisis between the separatists, who control the executive and the regional parliament, and the central government.
In October 2017, the separatists organized a self-determination referendum despite its ban by the courts and unilaterally declared the region’s independence, in vain. Tensions have eased considerably since the resumption in 2020 of dialogue between the separatists and the government of socialist Pedro Sanchez, who pardoned nine separatists last year in the name of “reconciliation”.