A Palestinian lawyer filed a lawsuit against the NSO Group in France. The Pegasus spyware infiltrated Salah Hamouri’s cell phone last year, according to a report in November, 2021.
In Paris, a Palestinian lawyer arrested in Israel has filed a lawsuit against the Israeli spying business NSO Group. Salah Hamouri said that the Israeli business illegally penetrated his cellphone.
Hamouri’s phone was infiltrated using the Pegasus software, as occurred to the phones of numerous other activists. Human rights organizations verified Pegasus’ role in the incursion in a report released late last year.
Last month, an Israeli military judge sentenced Hamouri to serve a four-month term of administrative imprisonment. He faces accusations of being a “threat to security,” according to the vague charge against him. Administrative detention permits Israel to hold prisoners for an indeterminate period of time without accusation or trial.
NSO is under accusations of unlawfully tapping a rights defender’s phone, according to Hamouri’s lawsuit. Hamouri’s lawsuit received encouragement from the Human Rights League and the International Federation for Human Rights.
“Obviously, this is an operation that is part of a largely political framework given the harassment Hamouri has been subjected to for years and the attacks on human rights defenders in Israel,” and attorney to the International Federation for Human Rights told reporters.
Hamouri served the Addameer, one of many non-governmental organizations in Palestine that Israel designated as “terrorist” centers late last year. A judicial probe might result from the new complaint filed with the prosecution office of the Paris judicial jurisdiction.
Hamouri has a French citizenship, according to FIDH attorney, and the infection of his cell phone with Pegasus occurred during his stay in France between April and May, last year. As a result, French judicial systems are “qualified” to probe and adjudicate the matter.
NSO Group Against Palestine
The NSO Group has been under increasing questions and probes in recent months. The company’s main product, Pegasus spyware, had the main role in spying on the personal phones of reporters, lawmakers, rights activists, and corporate executives in numerous nations, according to a group of news outlets.
Israel has denied the allegations, claiming that Hamouri is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Tel Aviv refuses the Pegasus involvement in Hamouri’s case and the sentence he received from the Israeli courts.
According to allegations published in a report from two months ago, the Indian administration obtained the Israeli malware as part of a weapon procurement agreement five years ago. Pegasus and a missile defense system were the central elements of a $2-billion transaction of advanced weaponry and intelligence systems.
Over 50 thousand phone numbers from throughout the world were chosen, the Pegasus targets including over 1,000 in India. Customers of the Israeli NSO Group were different groups of interests ranging from administrative sections to terrorist groups and rivals.
The agreement between Israel and India was possible by strengthening of ties between the two states when Modi took office. “The Modi visit [to Israel in 2017] was notably cordial, complete with a carefully staged moment of him and Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu walking together barefoot on a local beach,” the New York Times explained in a report last year.
The major opposition party in Indian congress alleged the government with treason due to its transaction with the NSO Group. Far from details, the fact that Indian government purchased Pegasus spyware illuminates the administrative hands behind the project in Israel.
Both Israel and Indian administration rejected the accusations, while the moves against Palestinian activists sheds more light on the case.
