A judge of Barcelona has admitted the complaint of the president of the Generalitat to processing, Peter Aragonésfor the alleged espionage of which she was a victim with the Pegasus program and has agreed to summon the former director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) Paz Esteban as under investigation.
In a document, to which EFE has had access, the head of the Court of Instruction number 29 of Barcelona maintains that the facts reported by Aragonès in his complaint, for crimes of unauthorized interference with computer equipment, illegal interception of communications, computer espionage and violation of fundamental rights, present characteristics that “suggest the possible existence of criminal infractions.”
Aragonès filed a complaint against the former director of the CNI Paz Esteban and against NSO, the Israeli company that owns the Pegasus cyberespionage system, in June 2022, although the head of Court number 29 of Barcelona, on which the case fell, recused himself from the National Court, at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, by considering this court to be competent because the Catalan president is a high institution of the State.
However, this decision was revoked last June by the Barcelona Court, Therefore, finally the head of Court 29 has assumed the case, has agreed to admit the complaint to processing and has cited Paz Esteban as being investigated – in what is his first accusation for espionage with Pegasus – on December 13, the same day on which Aragonès will also have to appear, in his case as an injured party.
The Government dismissed Paz Esteban as head of the CNI in May 2022 as a result of the controversy over espionage with Pegasus, which in addition to Aragonès and more than fifty pro-independence leaders also reached the President of the Government himself, Pero Sánchez, and the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles.