Aragonès asks Sánchez to “assume responsibilities” for the espionage on cell phones of independence leaders

The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, during the commemoration of Republic Day, last Thursday Andreu Dalmau (EFE)

For the Catalan independence movement, the involvement of the Government in the espionage of the mobile phones of 63 of its political leaders and activists is evident.

Hence,

Pere Aragonès, one of those affected, has pointed without hesitation to the Executive of Pedro Sánchez as the last person in charge and asked him "without excuses" to be "transparent" and "assume responsibilities".

After months of coldness between the secessionist parties, the Government in Barcelona and the parties and entities in Brussels will stage this Tuesday unity in rejecting what they consider to be one more episode of the ideological repression against them.

“The Spanish government has to give explanations immediately and go all the way.

There are no excuses.

Spying on representatives of citizens, lawyers and civil rights activists is a red line”, the head of the Government has assured on Twitter.

“Since the PSOE governs, the National Intelligence Center depends on the Ministry of Defense.

Then we will have to ask Minister Margarita Robles”,

Jordi Puigneró (Junts) wrote on the same social network.

Puigneró is also on the list of those affected.

From the Executive they deny "any relationship and the least connection" with the scandal.

The government sources consulted by EL PAÍS have been emphatic and have insisted that Spain "is a State of Law" in which respect for the fundamental rights set forth in the Constitution is "scrupulously" complied with.

The aforementioned sources have stressed that wiretapping can only be carried out in our country through judicial authorization.

More information

Mas, Torra and Aragonès, among 63 independence fighters spied on with Pegasus

The Israeli company that makes the

, NSO, says that it can only be acquired by government institutions such as armies, intelligence services and state security forces to investigate organized crime and terrorism.

An investigation by this newspaper and

revealed in 2020 the espionage of independence leaders.

The then Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, denied that his ministry used NSO products.

The Ministry of the Interior spoke along the same lines.

The CNI was not however so forceful.

ERC and other groups in Congress (including United We Can) failed, in September of that year, in their attempt to create an investigation commission.

The request ran into the table of the Chamber with the PSOE, Ciudadanos, PP and Vox.

Interior has stressed, as it did two years ago when the scandal first broke, that neither the department nor the National Police nor the Civil Guard "have ever had any relationship with the NSO company and, therefore, have never hired any of its services”, in reference to the malicious computer program.

"All communications interventions are made under court order and with full respect for the law," added sources from Fernando Grande-Marlaska's team, reports

The Interior recalls that the Security Forces under its orders use the so-called Legal Telecommunications Interception System (known by its acronym, Sitel), in operation since 2004. This allows the Police and Civil Guard to intervene, always under judicial control, thousands of investigated calls and messages, and obtain real-time information about the interlocutors, the content, the messages and their location.

In recent years, the various people responsible for the Interior have invested millions in items to update the system.

The operation of mass espionage against the Catalan independence movement is an unjustifiable shame.

An attack on fundamental rights and democracy extremely gray.

An example of the repression against a peaceful and civic movement.

We will arrive fins on calgui.

– Pere Aragonès i Garcia 🎗 (@perearagones) April 18, 2022

A Barcelona judge has been investigating the case since October 2020, after a complaint by Torrent and the former Minister of Foreign Action, Ernest Maragall, whose cell phone was also affected by the spyware.

Both held the former director of the CNI Félix Sanz Roldán responsible for alleged crimes of illegal interception of communications and computer espionage that occurred.

Aragonès will appear this Tuesday, in an extraordinary way, after the weekly meeting of the Government, together with all his advisers.

In turn, in the European Parliament, the

and leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont;

the head of the ERC ranks, Oriol Junqueras;

and the anti-capitalist deputy Carles Riera will appear with representatives of the ANC and Òmnium Cultural.

The general coordinator of EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi, and deputy Jon Iñarritu also appear on the list of pro-independence leaders spied on.

“The government is taking time to clarify this massive attack on political dissidence and immediately dismiss those responsible.

I will take all the appropriate legal and political measures”, Iñárritu stated.

You can follow EL PAÍS Catalunya on