Two technical reports from Spain's National Cryptological Centre have confirmed that the mobile phones of Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez and defence minister Margarita Robles were also infected with Pegasus software and had data extracted. As minister Félix Bolaños announced at an emergency press conference this Monday morning, these are "unequivocal" facts that have already been subject to a complaint to the Spanish criminal court, the National Audience. The reports, he detailed, detect two incursions on Sánchez's phone in May 2021 and one on Robles' device in June of that year, and there is no indication that any other hacks were thought to have occurred since then. "The verification is still ongoing and will reach all members of the Spanish government. These are proven facts that confirm that there has been illegal espionage. In a full democracy, only official bodies with judicial authorization are empowered to take such action." According to the minister, the information has already been transmitted to the courts and will be supplemented with what will emerge as a result of the ongoing investigation.
"We are acting with all our powers to guarantee the fundamental right to privacy of the people, this has been the unequivocal commitment of the government since the first reports," continued Bolaños, who said that security measures will be strengthened in all communications, not only from the central administration but from "the whole democratic fabric of the state." In this regard, he assured that they will be inflexible in the face of any violation of rights and that the necessary procedures will be strengthened to guarantee the rights of citizens. All this, exactly two weeks after the Catalangate revelations emerged, giving powerful evidence of espionage using this software, only sold to governments, against dozens of Catalan political leaders and individuals linked to the independence movement, and which the defence minister Robles herself has justified in terms of a legitimate response by the state to the challenge of Catalan sovereignty.
Illicit and external
In the press conference, Bolaños spoke of "illicit and external" interventions, without making it clear whether or not he was talking about a foreign country. In this regard, he did say that this is not a time for speculation when asked if this information on espionage on the mobile phones of defence minister Robles and PM Sánchez could be connected to Catalangate. The two attacks, in May and June 2021, coincide with the debate on the pardoning of the political prisoners by the executive. The minister responded on this by again referring to an external intervention in the devices, as all state interventions are carried out by official bodies and with judicial authorization and in this case neither of the two circumstances was met.
"The intrusions were consummated and caused a certain volume of data to be accessed from each phone," he said, without clarifying the amount of information extracted and asking for the facts to be clarified. "We want the justice system, which is the competent body and has sufficient resources, to clarify them," said Bolaños, detailing that as soon as the Spanish government became aware of the facts, it brought them to the attention of justice. "The commitment of the Spanish government is to know the whole truth," he concluded.