The name of Romano Prodi also appears among the targets of the alleged Pegasus espionage. This was reported by the Washington Post, one of the 17 investigators who brought to light the illegal use of Israeli-made software by governments. The name of the former Italian premier is part of the group of over 10 thousand contacts that would have been used mostly by the Moroccan intelligence against opponents and against rival Algeria. Among them also the current president of the European Council, Charles Michel, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the king of Morocco Mohammed VI and staff of the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The American newspaper reports that yesterday Prodi was contacted at the number on the list, which replied but declined to comment. Prodi’s name could be linked to his appointment, in 2012, as UN special envoy for the Sahel. Michel, on the other hand, would have been a victim of spyware when he was still Prime Minister of Belgium. Among the 50,000 potential targets of the entire investigation there are also, in addition to Macron, two other presidents in office: Barham Salih in Iraq and Cyril Ramaphosa in South Africa. Three current prime ministers, Imran Khan of Pakistan, Mostafa Madbouly of Egypt and Saad-Eddine El Othmani of Morocco. Seven former prime ministers, who according to the investigation would have been put on the list while they were still in office: the Yemeni Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr, the Lebanese Saad Hariri, the Ugandan Ruhakana Rugunda, the French Édouard Philippe, the Kazakh Bakitzhan Sagintayev, l Algerian Noureddine Bedoui and the Belgian Carlo Michele.
Morocco has expressed “great astonishment” at the publication of “erroneous allegations”, reports the Washington Post. “Morocco is a state governed by the rule of law, which guarantees the secrecy of personal communications under the Constitution” was the response of the government of Rabat. For its part, the Nso, the Israeli manufacturer, defended itself by saying that the leaked list of 50,000 numbers “is a list of numbers that anyone can search on an open source system for reasons other than surveillance via Pegasus. The fact that a number appears on that list is in no way indicative that that number was selected for surveillance through Pegasus. ‘ Meanwhile, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation, while yesterday the EU justice commissioner, Diddier Reynder, announced informal investigations to shed light on the affair, which involves the Hungarian government in the EU.