Lawyers representing the Catalan pro-independence leaders spied on with the Pegasus program will call on the judge to investigate several government agencies in its pursuit of the Catalangate case, not just the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), on whom the responsibilities have mostly been projected up till now, but also the Civil Guard and the National Police. Benet Salellas, lawyer responsible for the accusations made by those affected in the Òmnium Cultural organization and the CUP party, has detailed during an event organized at the University of Barcelona that complaints will be presented before the Barcelona investigative court number 32, which currently has an investigation open on one of the first cases of Pegasus espionage detected in Catalonia - the phone hacking of the former speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Roger Torrent, and of the ERC deputy, Ernest Maragall.
Salellas stated that all the evidence shows that these agencies collaborated in the espionage. He recalled that some of the SMS used to infect smartphones contained information available only to Spanish agencies and that the CNI has admitted that it possesses the Pegasus program. "There is a duty to investigate on the part of the Spanish authorities," he warned. The Israeli company which created and markets the spyware, NSO, has an office in Luxembourg, which, according to the lawyer, should serve to facilitate the collaboration between the Spanish and European courts. In fact, the Barcelona judge investigating the case has been waiting a year and a half for a response from Israel about NSO.
With regard to the imputation of NSO itself as a legal entity - beyond the fact that it could also be shown that specific individuals are implicated - the lawyer recalled that in California this company argued that before selling the product, a study is done on the government that wants to buy it, as well as a subsequent review of its correct use, which could lead to revocation of usage permission. "We will ask for NSO to be imputed, either due to a lack of due diligence or a lack of control and surveillance," he said. He also warned of the "necessary collaboration" of the company in the espionage function, since the data passed through an NSO server before reaching the government which had purchased the spyware.
Salellas put forward different arguments that will be used in the complaints that they will exercise against the espionage. In the opinion of the lawyer, who recall that Pegasus is designed to fight terrorism and organized crime, it is impossible to associate the activity of the Tsunami Democràtic protest platform with violence, if one applies a logical perspective and certifiable, international criteria. He also recalled that judge Baltasar Garzón was convicted of having tapped the phones of the lawyers involved in the Gürtel case, practices that the judgement likened to those of totalitarian regimes, and thus the Supreme Court itself has made it clear that certain legal cases could be susceptible to being considered a crime. "The debate is not whether there is judicial authorization, but whether there is justification for it," he said, arguing that it is impossible to explain espionage against politicians and lawyers within a state under rule of law.
Robles: a crime
The words of the Spanish defence minister, Margarita Robles, justifying the mass espionage against Catalan independence activists and people linked to them have become one of the key elements in the affair. In fact, according to Carles Puigdemont's lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, they will have legal consequences outside Spain. "More than one judge will think that this is a crime, for one simple reason, because it is. It is a textbook case of an offence, which gives little room for interpretation. The gravity of the facts is important," the lawyer stated.
Boye is one of the lawyers personally affected by the espionage, as is Andreu Van den Eynde, lawyer to Oriol Junqueras and the ERC politicians, who stressed that as defence lawyers they have an immunity which has been violated by the perpetrators of this espionage and now one can only presume that the minister has assumed responsibility. "We are professionals, we are protected by law, and the violation of this privilege is very difficult to explain," he said.
Junqueras' lawyer explained the operation of the Pegasus spyware, a mass cyber espionage weapon, which fully monitors all the activity in a mobile phone, and can affect the device "by planting evidence", as well as making calls or sending messages on behalf of the infected person. NSO would have provided its clients, in this case the CNI, with a server that would be at their disposal to use the information that they want.
Action against Pegasus
The lawyer explained three lines of the action that they will take to denounce Pegasus: he explained that the aim is to put technical pressure on the investigation to be carried out - in this sense, he recalled that there is already a "good technical investigation" by Citizen Lab that demonstrates that the espionage took place; there is also a legal side, and he demands a political side so that the bodies responsible cannot "escape". The lawyer considers that there has already been a "turning point" in this matter, because an investigation has just begun in the European Parliament, while the US has blacklisted the NSO firm.
With regard to this, Boye highlighted the fact that many journalists have also been spied on through telephone contacts they have maintained with those infected. "Espionage by definition is illegal. There has been espionage here, not criminal investigation," he warned.
Shows up the repression
Salellas asserted that CatalanGate, in which citizens, politicians and journalists have been attacked, should serve to "try to turn around" the defence made internationally of the repression against the independence movement and denounce the "situation of violations of the rule of law that occur in the Spanish state". "Catalangate gives us the opportunity to tell the outside world what the target and objective of Spain is. It shows the Spanish state's objective in sharp relief. It is not just against politicians, not just against members of civil society, but also against lawyers, engineers... The only thing they have in common is the will to participate, to collaborate in the defence of the independence movement. Perhaps it gives us an opportunity to define the repression that is carried out in this general case against the independence movement", said Salellas, insisting on the intervention of state agencies to "sketch the form of the legal drama".
Boye stressed that just as Watergate was a direct attack on democracy in the United States, Catalangate "is the clearest symbol of an attack on the democracy and a violation of the rights of Catalans." He warned that when the minister took it for granted that crimes had to be committed to stop the independence movement, the response was "perverse and dangerous", and called directly to Robles: "where did you set the limits of the crimes you were willing to commit?".
Antoni Abat, a lawyer for those spied on within the Catalan National Assembly, (ANC), criticized the ideological persecution of independence supporters, which has violated fundamental rights.
The event was attended by the president of Òmnium, Xavier Antich, and the president of the ANC, Elisenda Paluzie, as well as some of the political leaders affected by espionage, such as MEP Diana Riba.
