The Moroccan government on Thursday filed a defamation suit against human rights body Amnesty International and French media non-profit Fo...
The Moroccan government on Thursday filed a defamation suit against human rights body Amnesty International and French media non-profit Forbidden Stories in relation to the alleged surveillance using the Pegasus spyware, AFP reported.
This appears to be the first lawsuit filed in the matter by the government of a country against which there are allegations of spying.
The list of over 50,000 potential snooping targets accessed by Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories showed that French President Emmanuel Macron was chosen as a potential target for surveillance by Morocco in 2019. King Mohammed VI of Morocco was reportedly chosen as a target by the security forces of his own country in the same year.
The Pegasus spyware is developed, marketed and licensed to governments around the world by the Israeli cyber intelligence company NSO Group. The company said that it licenses its software only to “vetted governments” and that Pegasus is meant to be targeted at criminals.
Morocco has, however, refused the allegations.
“The Moroccan state...wants all possible light cast on these false allegations from these two organisations, who make claims without any concrete or demonstrative evidence whatsoever,” Olivier Baratelli, the lawyer representing the government in the suit said in a statement.
The lawyer added that the Moroccan government does not intend to let “multiple lies and fake...
