Rabat accuses Ignacio Cembrero of having lied by declaring that he was spied on by Morocco using the powerful PEGASUS spy software.
by Sandrine Morel (Madrid, corresponding)
For the fourth time since 2014, the Kingdom of Morocco has brought to justice the Spanish journalist Ignacio Cembrero. This specialist in the Maghreb, former editor of the daily El Pais and current collaborator of the El Confidentical Information Site, must be tried by a court of first instance in Madrid Friday January 13 for “act of boastful”. Rabat accuses him of having lied by declaring that he was spied on by Morocco using the powerful PEGASUS spy software, marketed by the Israeli company NSO Group.
This is not the first complaint that Rabat files within the framework of the revelations of the “Pegasus project” when, in 2021, MO12345lemonde and sixteen other editors, coordinated by Forbidden Stories, had revealed the extent of the surveillance led by Different states against political opponents, journalists, lawyers or human rights activists, using Pegasus.
Identified among spy software customers, Morocco had been suspected of being behind many targets in France, including activists for the independence of Western Sahara, but also French diplomats or senior political leaders. Mr. Cembrero’s phone also appeared in the list. 2> “I am the victim of legal harassment”
In the fall of 2021, several media, including MO12345lemonde, Radio France, Mediapart, Humanity and Amnesty International had been targeted by defamation complaints filed by the Kingdom of Morocco. But in France, the Paris court declared them inadmissible. With regard to Mr. Cembrero, Rabat has changed his strategy. He used a charges inherited from the Middle Ages which remains in the Spanish penal code and which, “in the 13th e century, aimed to silence those who claim rights which did not correspond to them not, “recalls the daily El Pais.
The lawyer representing the Cherifian kingdom, Ernesto Díaz-Bastien former lawyer for the Syrian weapons trafficker Monzer Al Kassar or General Augusto Pinochet, asks the journalist to withdraw and the judge responsible for the file that she recognizes that ‘He “was” not the victim of any act of espionage for which would have committed the kingdom of Morocco against him “.
For Ignacio Cembrero, however, there is “no doubt” that it was Morocco that spied on it using Pegasus. “I work on Morocco where I have very good sources, I write things that displease and I have been the victim of judicial harassment for a long time. And, above all, an article in June 2021 of the Diplomatic Morocco site, close to Power, mentioned two private messages that I had exchanged by WhatsApp with members of the Spanish government of which I had not talked to anyone else, he explains. I had already said to myself at the time that I ‘was spied on “.
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