The Barcelona Court has ordered the director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) to testify as a witness to clarify whether she acquired the Pegasus software to spy on two ERC politicians. In an interlocutory hearing, the court partially accepts the appeal of the republican leaders, Diana Riba and Josep Maria Jové, who had demanded the appearance of the head of the secret services, Esperanza Casteleiro, to clarify whether the use of Pegasus was done in accordance with the law current
To use the software, the CNI should have had the endorsement of a designated Supreme Court judge, so the Court specifies that if Pegasus was used in accordance with the law, "this use does not would be illegal". And he adds that "given the secret nature of these investigations" it is possible that no more information can be given than the confirmation of having used the program.
Riba and Jové filed a complaint in court number 20 in Barcelona after several expert analyzes determined that their phones were infected with the software of the NSO company, established in Israel and which was acquired by Spanish intelligence. "The aim of the investigation must be to clarify whether it was the CNI that committed the acts", they denounced. The magistrate accepted the complaint for processing but did not admit any investigative diligence, and left it to be requested by the prosecutor. The public ministry objected to the company declaring and expressed doubts about whether the events being reported had happened in Spain.
In the resolution, the Court orders that a statement be taken from the NSO company and that it be informed in advance of its status as an investigation. In addition, it also requests information from the CNI about the purchase and use of the Pegasus software at NSO, although only in relation to the espionage suffered by the complainants, Riba and Jové.
Another of the proceedings ordered by the Court is for Jové and Riba to hand over the attacked mobile phones in order to carry out an "analysis and a judicial expert report" on the alleged espionage. The court of inquiry number 32 has another case open for espionage against Roger Torrent and Ernest Maragall. The Court requests that both cases be investigated in the same court.
