One of Scotland's leading lawyers, Aamer Anwar, who has defended Catalan pro-independence MEP Clara Ponsatí, has told The Times that he too was spied on by Spain, through the Pegasus software program which is sold only to governments to pursue major crime. Neither Anwar nor Ponsatí appeared on the initial list of 65 people connected to Catalonia whose devices were known to have been infected with the program, but according to The Times, the lawyer claims that they were hacked when Ponsatí was teaching at Saint Andrew's University and Spanish justice was seeking to extradite her. He adds that both the lawyer and his team were aware that they were being spied on and that this forced them to "use an encrypted program to communicate." Meanwhile, Ponsatí was also targeted indirectly when the computer of a European Parliament staff member who worked for her was infected, according to the report on the so-called CatalanGate espionage prepared by Canadian research centre the Citizen Lab.
"I was the victim of a Spanish hack," says Scots lawyer for Catalan rebel", headlines 'The Times'
If the espionage is confirmed, against a British lawyer taking part in a trial in the Courts of Scotland, it could lead to a diplomatic conflict, since it would be a case of interference by the Spanish state in Scottish justice. Scottish National Party MP Joanna Cherry stated in this regard that this is a "violation of the principle of legal privilege and unworthy of a democracy under the rule of law."
The indications are that the lawyer was not only spied on via intervention in his mobile phone but also through other channels, including email. Anwar explained how he became aware of this. "We were very much aware that calls were being interrupted in mid-sentence, e-mails were also blocked and messages were arriving 24 hours late. At the peak, it became exasperating, and you couldn't even hold a conversation," said Anwar. He also explained that he sometimes used his 12-year-old son's mobile phone to talk to Ponsatí, so that Spanish spies would not listen to him, as a precautionary measure.
The Times notes that the initial list of Catalan who were spied on includes Pol Cruz, "who worked for Ponsatí when she was elected MEP, and in July 2020 had his computer infected with the spyware program." "The Citizen Lab's analysis shows that all of the Catalan MEPs who supported independence were attacked with the Pegasus software, either directly or in a relational way," the newspaper added. As a result, on Thursday the European Parliament enabled a service for all MEPs to check whether their devices have been infected with the spyware.
Anwar explained that he was forced to substitute his mobile phone several times because the problems "have persisted". "I remember once buying an iPad for my daughter. I turned it on and set it up from my profile, and after a few minutes the device went berzerk, making weird noises. I took it to Apple, and they told me they had never seen anything like it," he said.