Saudi Arabia has denied using spyware to monitor phones as indicated by the Pegasus Project investigative report.
Saudi Arabia‘s state-run news agency, the Saudi Press Agency, quoted an unnamed official on Wednesday night as denying “allegations contained in some press reports regarding the claim that an entity in the Kingdom used a program to monitor communications.”
The source stressed that the allegations are baseless, adding that “the approach and policy of the Kingdom are fixed and do not endorse such practices.”
The statement followed data leaks pointing to 10 countries’ usage of the powerful Pegasus spyware, developed by the Israel-based technology firm NSO, to spy on politicians, journalists, and other public figures.
The report alleges that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Morocco were among those countries.
NSO allegedly sold Pegasus to Saudi Arabia in 2017, which the latter then used in a campaign to crush opposition members within its borders and chase those living abroad, according to the report.
The data in the report also points to Saudi Arabia‘s alleged involvement, alongside the UAE, in spying or attempting to spy on all but two officials in Lebanon, including former PM-designate Saad Hariri.
The report shows that Pegasus has been used to target the phones of journalists, opposition members, and political leaders around the world.
France, whose president, Emmanuel Macron, was allegedly targeted with Pegasus, has launched an investigation into the alleged use of the software to target journalists.
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