Pegasus issue: French President Emmanuel Macron selected as person of interest by Morocco in 2019

The leaked database at the heart of the Pegasus project includes the mobile phone numbers of the French president Emmanuel Macron and 13 other heads of state and heads of government the Guardian reportedThe South African president Cyril Ramaphosa is also listed in the data which includes diplomats military chiefs and senior politicians from 34 countriesThe appearance of a number on the leaked list which includes numbers selected by governments that are clients of NSO Group the Israeli spyware firm does not mean it was subject to an attempted or successful hack NSO insists the database has no relevance to the companyNSO said Macron was not a target of any of its customers meaning the company denies he was selected for surveillance using Pegasus its spyware The company added that the fact that a number appeared on the list was in no way indicative of whether that number was selected for surveillance using PegasusNSO insists it requires its government clients to only use its powerful spying tools for legitimate investigations into terrorism or crimeAlso Read France starts probe into alleged use of PegasusThe Guardian and other media partners in the Pegasus project an international consortium identified those governments believed to be responsible for selecting individual numbers in the data by closely examining the patterns of selectionPolitical figures whose numbers appear in the list includeThe South African president Cyril Ramaphosa who appears to have been selected by Rwanda in 2019Emmanuel Macron the French president who appears to have been selected as a person of interest by Morocco in 2019 An Elysee official said If this is proven it is clearly very serious All light will be shed on these media revelationsTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus the World Health Organizations director general who also appears to have been of interest to Morocco in 2019Saad Hariri who resigned as prime minister of Lebanon last week and appears to have been selected by the UAE in 2018 and 2019Charles Michel the president of the European Council who appears to have been chosen as a person of interest by Morocco in 2019 when he was prime minister of BelgiumKing Mohammed VI of Morocco who was selected as a person of interest in 2019 apparently by security forces in his own countrySaadeddine Othmani Moroccos prime minister who was also selected as a person of interest in 2018 and 2019 again possibly by elements within his own countryFelipe Calderon of Mexico the former president His number was selected in 2016 and 2017 by what is believed to have been a Mexican client during a period when his wife Margarita Zavala was running for the countrys top political jobRobert Malley a longtime American diplomat who was chief negotiator on the USIran deal and who appears to have been selected as a person of interest by Morocco in 2019 NSO has said its government clients are prevented from deploying its software against US numbers because it has been made technically impossibleThe Pegasus project could not examine the mobile phones of the leaders and diplomats and could therefore not confirm whether there had been any attempt to install malware on their phonesIn addition to denying Macron was a target an NSO Group spokesperson also said King Mohammed VI and Tedros Ghebreyesus are not and never have been targets or selected as targets of NSO Group customersLawyers for NSO said the firm defined targets as people who were selected for surveillance using Pegasus regardless of whether an attempt to infect her or his device is successfulThe surveillance company says it does not have access to the data of its customers but says that they are obligated to provide the firm with such information when they have placed them under investigation The company appears to have undertaken such an investigation into Morocco which is believed to be one of its clientsForensic examinations of a sample of 67 phones in the leaked data belonging to human rights activists journalists and lawyers found 37 had contained traces of Pegasus infection or attempted infection The analysis was done by Amnesty Internationals Security Lab a technical partner on the projectThe leaked data also suggests Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have appeared eager to consider monitoring Egyptian officials despite both countries close ties to Egypts authoritarian ruler Abdel Fatah alSisiAmong the numbers selected as individuals of interest by an NSO client believed to be the Saudi government was that of the Egyptian prime minister Mostafa MadboulyBoth Saudi and UAE are believed to have selected Barham Salih the president of Iraq who is close to the US as a candidate of interest to their governments Salihs UK number also appeared in the listNeither Saudi Arabia or the UAE have responded to requests for commentRwandan authorities have staunchly denied having access to NSO Group technology but have long been suspected of being a client of the Israeli firm An analysis of the leaked data shows that Ruhakana Rugunda was selected as a candidate for potential surveillance in 2018 and 2019 when he served as prime minister of Uganda ndash a selection seemingly made by the government of Rwanda The Guardian reportedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever