Polish senator says prosecutors drag on phone tapping

On July 22, 2021, a man walked past the sign of the Israeli internet company NSO Group at a branch of its branch in the Arava desert in southern Israel. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

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Warsaw, December 28 (Reuters)-A Polish opposition senator believed that his mobile phone had been compromised by sophisticated spyware developed by the Israeli National Bureau of Statistics. He accused the prosecutor of failing to act on the case, treating it as “Hot Potatoes” passed between the offices.

The Associated Press (AP) reported this month that researchers at the University of Toronto discovered that Senator Krzysztof Brejza was hacked using Pegasus software in 2019 when he was running for the largest opposition party’s campaign.

The Associated Press also reported that the Citizen Lab project of the University of Toronto found that the phones of Ewa Wrzosek, a prosecutor who criticized the government’s judicial reform, and Roman Giertych, a lawyer representing opposition figures, were hacked.

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All three said that Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party is responsible for the hacking attacks.

Stanislaw Zaryn, a spokesperson for the Polish security service, said he could not comment on the methods used by the Polish security service or whether the department investigated specific individuals.

He had before Say Any claim that the Polish army is involved in domestic political struggles is wrong.

A PiS spokesperson declined to comment further. “The security department has already commented on this topic,” she said.

“The prosecutor’s office did nothing. It’s paralyzed,” Breza told Reuters by phone, adding that he and his wife had notified prosecutors about possible phone tapping in September.

“The prosecutor’s office is buying time-they don’t want to initiate an investigation or refuse to initiate an investigation, they just see it as a hot potato that is best thrown elsewhere,” Breza said.

He said that the complaint has been passed between prosecutors’ offices across the country, but it has no effect.

The National Prosecutor’s Office and Ostrow Wielkopolski’s Office of the Prosecutor, which are currently handling the Brejza case, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Critics of the government say that the prosecutor’s office has been politicized. Attorney General Zbigniew Ziobro is the architect of judicial reform, which the European Union claims undermines the independence of the courts, and he also serves as the attorney general.

NSO Group stated that the technology it manufactures is used by governments and law enforcement agencies to combat crime and terrorism, and has taken protective measures to prevent abuse.

Digital rights researchers say that Pegasus has been used to monitor civil societies in multiple countries.

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Reported by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Anna Koper, written by Alan Charlish; edited by Alex Richardson

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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