Was the cell phone spied on by French President Emmanuel Macron? At least his number should be on a list of a foreign security service. Paris now wants to check the evidence.
After media revelations about the Pegasus surveillance software, France is now investigating the allegations. Head of state Emmanuel Macron is taking the matter “very seriously,” said government spokesman Gabriel Attal on Thursday in radio station France Inter.
A special meeting led by Macron in the Élysée Palace will deal with the affair.
According to information from the daily newspaper “Le Monde”, Macron and several members of the government were possible targets in 2019 for the surveillance software Pegasus from the Israeli provider NSO. One of Macron’s cell phone numbers is on a Moroccan security service list for possible spying.
Elysée circles had already announced after the publication that the media information did not mean that Macron’s cell phone was actually spied on. However, if the facts reported should prove to be true, “they are of course very serious”. Morocco denied any involvement in the surveillance of public figures.
Pegasus uses security holes in smartphone software to gain extensive access to data. Attal said in the radio interview that the head of state’s cell phones were changed regularly.
The numbers of the French government belong to a data set with more than 50,000 telephone numbers, which an international journalist consortium evaluated together with the organizations Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, according to «Le Monde». The numbers are reported to have been selected by NSO customers as potential spying targets. NSO had denied the allegations and denied individual details from the reports. The “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, NDR, WDR and “Zeit” are also involved in the journalist consortium.
According to another report by “Le Monde”, the list also included around 30 journalists and heads of media companies in France. After a complaint from two journalists and the publishing company of the online platform “Mediapart”, the Paris public prosecutor had started an investigation.
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