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Morocco has filed defamation complaints against Amnesty International and a French NGO that claim its intelligence services used Pegasus mobile phone spyware against dozens of French journalists, government lawyers said Thursday.
Paris prosecutors opened their own investigation this week into allegations by Amnesty and French nonprofit Forbidden Stories, revealed by media including The Washington Post and French on a daily basis The world.
They are based on a leaked list of 50,000 phone numbers allegedly targeted by the Israeli group NSO’s Pegasus cell phone monitoring program.
“The Moroccan state (…) wants all the light to be shed on these false allegations by these two organizations, which make claims without any concrete or demonstrative evidence whatsoever,” said lawyer Olivier Baratelli in a communicated.
A first hearing is set for October 8 in Paris, although a trial may not open for two years.
The phone of King Mohammed VI of Morocco and those of other members of the royal family is also on the list of numbers identified as potential targets of Pegasus by Moroccan intelligence services, Radio France reported on Tuesday.
French President Emmanuel Macron has changed his phone and phone number in light of allegations that Pegasus spyware may have targeted him, a presidential official said on Thursday.
On the same day, he held an emergency cybersecurity meeting at the Élysée Palace.
Evidence of a hacking attempt was found on the phone of former environment minister and close ally of Macron, François de Rugy, the attempt allegedly originating in Morocco.
Morocco has denied the allegations, saying this week that it “has never acquired computer software to infiltrate communications devices”.
Baratelli added that the Moroccan government did not intend to let the “multiple lies and false news” go unpunished.
(With AFP)
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