The European Parliament's commission of inquiry into the Pegasus case issued a report on Monday with its conclusions after more than a year of work. It points to Morocco as the "possible" person responsible for spying on the mobile phones of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, the Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, and the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
On the other hand, the report of conclusions, which has been approved by 30 votes in favor, 3 against and 4 abstentions, assumes that it was the "Spanish authorities" who spied on Catalan pro-independence politicians, 18 of them with judicial authorization, although it put in doubt the proportionality of the wiretaps. "Based on a series of indicators, some of which were admitted by the Official Secrets Commission (of the Congress of Deputies), it is assumed that surveillance of Catalan targets was carried out by Spanish authorities," notes the report.
The Spanish Government has always defended in the Congress of Deputies that the investigations were carried out with judicial authorization and that it is obliged to keep them secret.
After knowing the conclusions of the commission of investigation, the Popular Party has assessed that the report asks the President of the Government for more "clarity" about the possible role of Morocco in cases of cyber-surveillance with the Pegasus system. For the PP, the European Parliament has highlighted the scant information provided by the Government of Spain on the espionage on Sánchez's telephone and has asked him for "more clarity and transparency."
The text of the commission of investigation states that the National Intelligence Center has recognized the espionage of 18 Catalan independentistas -all of them with judicial authorization-, among them the current president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, or the former president Carles Puigdemont, although the latter not directly but through his wife's phone.
"As for the 18 cases in which a court order had been issued, the legality has been verified and confirmed by the Ombudsman, but its specialty, adequacy, exceptionality, proportionality and necessity can only be verified by a court," notes the report.
Regarding the other 47 individuals linked to the independence movement who were also spied on, according to the Citizen Lab report, "it remains unclear if they were selected by the CNI with a court order or if another authority received court orders to select them legally," says the report. It also adds that "it has not been possible to assess to what extent" these 47 people "constituted an imminent threat to national security or the territorial integrity of the State."
The Commission of Investigation - which traveled to Madrid to analyze the Spanish case - assures that "Spain has an independent judicial system with sufficient safeguards", but at the same time, says that the explanations given by the president of the CNI, Esperanza Casteleiro Llamazares, " They were limited and left many questions open".
Puigdemont abstained from voting because, in his opinion, "the report shows the seriousness of the facts, but unfortunately, it follows the Spanish government", by stating that the Spanish judicial system guarantees guarantees.
Jordi Cañas, MEP for Ciudadanos, could not vote on the report because he is not a member of the Commission, but he affirmed that the text "lies" and was "convinced" that the rapporteur for the text, the liberal Sophie in 't Veld, " he knows that what he says cannot be demonstrated" and "that what he is doing is casting a shadow of doubt on a solid democracy like ours".
From ERC, on the other hand, the MEP Diana Riba - who was also spied on - expressed satisfaction with the text because "it broadly addresses what Catalangate is" and "sees that the legal framework of the Spanish State is obsolete".
The PP MEP and former Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zodio voted in favor of the text because, among other reasons, "he denies the accusations of Catalan secessionism and that these secessionist politicians have been victims of any abuse, since he declares them a target for surveillance by national security reasons," he said in a statement.
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