The CNI delivers to the Court its reports on the cause of espionage against Pedro Sánchez

The National Intelligence Center (CNI) has already delivered to the National Court all reports requested after reactivating the case for spying on the mobile phone of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. The investigating magistrate, José Luis Calama, ordered in April that the entire documentary sent by France on mass espionage with the Pegasus software be analyzed, to specify the common points with this investigation.

Legal sources confirm to LA RAZÓN that the Central Court of Instruction number 4 already has the information requested from the National Cryptological Center on its table and that the next step will be to study it to decide if shares its content with the French authorities. The instructor asked the CNI after the reopening of the case in April to carefully study the information provided by the French country which, through a European investigation order, offered the National Court the details of the hacking they suffered in 2021.

The French authorities provided data on the Indicators of Commitment (IOCs). This is evidence that offers information about the attacking user, the names of the infected domains and the owners of said domains that appeared in their expert opinion. A comparison of said documentary was also requested with the reports that the CNI had already prepared in relation to the infection of the mobile phone of the president and his Ministers of Agriculture, Luis Planas; of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and of Defense, Margarita Robles.

CNI reports

The magistrate required the CNI to investigate the similarities of both hacks in order to shed light on the authorship of the facts and, also, to indicate the procedures that could be carried out in view of the new information received. More than half a year after the commission, the CNI completes the delivery of its conclusions to the National Court awaiting analysis in court. In April, after the reopening of the case, the instructor already announced that depending on how this action went, an “exchange of information” could be carried out with the French authorities to find out the details of the investigation carried out by the French National Agency. of Information Systems Security (ANSSI).

Unlike what happened in this investigation, France does have information sent by NSO Groupthe Israeli company that markets the Pegasus program. Paris opened an investigation in 2021 after detecting that members of the Government, ministers, deputies, associations, journalists and lawyers had been spied on with Israeli software. It was a large-scale hack that led them to ask the firm for explanations, since this program is supposed to be sold exclusively to state organizations.

NSO Group did not attend the hearings to which it was called, but it did provide some information about the use of this program that is now can be key for the investigation of the National Court. However, the company denied being responsible for the infection of the affected phones and made it clear that any additional information that France wanted to collect would have to be requested through national cooperation tools.

Israel does not collaborate

Precisely the lack of collaboration from Israel It was what led to the archiving of these proceedings. The instructor Calama was forced to provisionally dismiss the case in July 2023, given that Tel Aviv did not respond to the rogatory commission issued by the Spanish Justice. The court appealed to the Ministry of Justice on several occasions to remind them that they had yet to respond to Spain’s request, but the requests were not responded to. The instructor’s objective was to go to Israel to question those responsible for the company that sells it, but without a response to his request, he had to file the case, given that no one responsible for espionage could be charged.

In his filing order, Calama told the Government that, given that he had been the one who promoted this criminal procedure, he could activate the diplomatic route to clarify the facts. “At this point, this body can do little or nothing to comply with the rogatory commission. All that remains is an eventual diplomatic channel that is capable of promoting compliance with the obligations derived from international treaties and whose exercise corresponds to the Government. However, doubt, the State Attorney General’s Office, as the procedural representative of the administration, will promote the exercise,” he explained.

However, there is no evidence that Moncloa moved in that direction nor that it appealed the archiving order. Thus, the details of the hacks into the phones of Sánchez and three of his ministers in the months of May and June 2021 remained unclarified. It should be remembered that these proceedings were born as a result of a complaint filed by the Lawyers in the Court National in May 2022, in the midst of the scandal ‘Catalangate’espionage on Catalan independence leaders. In that context, the State’s legal services reported that the terminals of Sánchez and Margarita Robles were also infected and requested that an investigation be opened for the alleged crime of revealing secrets.

Joint research

Days later, and in accordance with the conclusions submitted by the CNI, the complaint was expanded to also include ministers Grande-Marlaska and Planas. From the progress of the investigations, it was learned that a total of five infections to the telephone of the President of the Government, through which they extracted about 2.7 gigabytes of information. The main hacks occurred between May 19 and 31 of that 2022, coinciding with the serious migration crisis in Ceuta after Morocco learned that Spain welcomed the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, to provide him with hospital care.

The instructor opened proceedings and summoned those affected to testify, in addition to the Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolaños. Calama tried to have these appearances held in person at the courthouse but the witnesses, despite being directly affected by what happened, availed themselves of the privilege granted to them by article 412.2 of the Criminal Procedure Law (LECrim) to testify in writing. In the case of Bolaños, he was offered to appear by videoconference but he did not respond to the offer.

Thus, the magistrate focused on Israel, but from there there was never a response to the rogatory commission issued or to the successive reminders issued through the Ministry of Justice, so he ended up archiving these investigations. The emergence of France has not only led to its reopening, but has also provided a last opportunity to reach the author of the hacks. Now, after incorporating the CNI’s conclusions, it will be decided whether to share them with France to jointly advance in clarifying the facts.