Spain: the government denies having spied on the Catalan separatists

The Spanish government on Tuesday (April 19th) categorically denied having spied on dozens of Catalan independence leaders, who accused Madrid of hacking their mobile phones with Pegasus software.

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Spain "

", Government spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez said on Tuesday.

The Catalan independence movement on Monday accused Madrid of illegally spying on dozens of its leaders by installing Pegasus software on their cellphones, after the publication of a report by a Canadian organization documenting the alleged facts.

Suspected espionage of politicians

According to this report - written by "

", a Canadian organization based at the University of Toronto -, at least 65 Catalan separatists were spied on between 2017 and 2020. Among those targeted is the current Catalan regional president Pere Aragonés (who was number two in the region at the time), the former regional presidents Quim Torra and Artur Mas, as well as MEPs, regional deputies and members of independentist civil organisations.

Former regional president Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium in October 2017 to escape Spanish justice after Catalonia's attempted secession, was not directly spied on but many of his relatives, including his wife, the have been, specifies the Canadian organization.

Open investigation

"

" with these accusations and "

", insisted its spokesperson Isabel Rodríguez, affirming that the executive "

” if the courts so request.

The NGO Amnesty International called on Monday in a press release to "

".

In the summer of 2021, an extensive media investigation revealed that the Pegasus software had made it possible to spy on the phones of journalists, politicians, activists or business leaders from different countries.

Catalonia, a region in northeastern Spain, has been the scene for several years of a political crisis between the separatists, who control the executive and the regional parliament, and the central government.

Read alsoWhere is the crisis between Catalonia and Spain?

In October 2017, the separatists organized a self-determination referendum despite its ban by the courts and unilaterally declared the region's independence, in vain.

Tensions have eased considerably since the resumption in 2020 of dialogue between the separatists and the government of socialist Pedro Sanchez, who pardoned nine separatists last year in the name of “

”.