Catalan president calls for 'full truth' after testifying in Pegasus spyware trial

Catalan President Pere Aragonès testified as a victim at a Barcelona court on Tuesday morning in a cell phone spying case involving the Pegasus spyware in 2020, when he was vice president. 

The court is investigating the alleged spying carried out by the National Intelligence Center (CNI), Spain's intelligence agency, through the Pegasus program.   

Aragonès told the judge that the CNI spied on him from 2018 to 2020, during crucial political moments. He explained that his cell phone contained relevant political information as well as personal matters.

Upon leaving the court, the Catalan president said that the Pegasus case must bring to light the "whole truth about espionage."

"We will fight this so that no other Catalan citizen is spied on as a result of their political ideology," he said.

Aragonès called on the Spanish government to declassify the CNI's documentation on Pegasus, stating that it is "an ethical and moral obligation."

"As citizens, they have spied on us, but they have also spied on the government of the country," he added. "I come here to defend my rights, but also those of all citizens."

The organization CitizenLab first discovered three text messages that Aragonès received on January 4, 5, and 13 of 2020.

When the scandal came to light in March 2022, Aragonès had his phone analyzed by computer experts. They detected other intrusions into his phone from June 2018 to March 2020, without being able to determine the duration or extent of the spying.

The court was also scheduled to question the former director of the CNI, Paz Esteban, who was fired in connection to the case. However, her testimony has been postponed until January. 

Catalangate  

Catalangate is the name given by Citizen Lab, a research group based in the University of Toronto that reports on high-tech human rights abuses. They are responsible for launching an investigation into the espionage of several Catalan pro-independence politicians, activists and their close associates.   

It is "the largest forensically documented cluster of such attacks and infections on record," according to the New Yorker article published on April 18 of last year.   

Among the targets were Catalan president Pere Aragonès and every former Catalan president leading back to 2010.  

Victims' phones were infected using spyware programs Pegasus and Candiru. The former is known internationally for its previous infections of renowned people, such as murdered Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi and members of Rwanda’s opposition party.  

Candiru, founded by former NSO Group employees, is not as well known but performs a similar function as Pegasus. 

Learn more about Catalangate by listening to our Filling the Sink podcast episode from May 2022 and read a more in-depth article on the consequences of the espionage scandal.