MADRID (Reuters) – A court in Barcelona that is investigating the use of Pegasus spyware to allegedly snoop on high-profile Catalan separatists has named Spain’s former spy chief, Paz Esteban, a suspect and called her to testify, a court document showed on Monday.
Canada’s Citizen Lab group said last year that in the wake of a failed independence bid in 2017, more than 60 people linked to the Catalan separatist movement, including regional leader Pere Aragones and several of his predecessors, had been targeted by Pegasus, made by Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group.
Urged to explain itself by Catalonia’s pro-independence party ERC, a key government ally in parliament, the minority administration never acknowledged eaves-dropping on the Catalans and said the software had also been used to spy on its own members, without specifying who might have been behind it.
The subsequent political unease led to the sacking of Esteban in May 2022.
Aragones, who was vice-president of the Catalan government at the time of the alleged spying, filed a complaint against her and NSO Group in June 2022, which the court accepted on Oct. 6, according to the document.
The investigating judge called Esteban and Aragones to testify on Dec. 13.
An investigation into the use of Pegasus to spy on Spanish politicians, including Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, and several ministers was shelved earlier this year due to a lack of cooperation from Israel.
After an inconclusive election in July, the Socialist-led government remains in a caretaker capacity, while acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is seeking to win a new term in a parliamentary vote, for which he needs the support from Catalonia’s two separatist parties.
Failing that, Spain will likely need a repeat election early next year.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, editing by Andrei Khalip and Christina Fincher)
