2024-01-17 10:51 update: 2024-01-18, 21:32
Photo PAP/Piotr Nowak
The Sejm, the lower house of Polish parliament, has adopted a bill setting up a special commission to investigate the alleged use of the Pegasus spyware for surveillance of opposition figures in Poland by the ex-ruling party Law and Justice (PiS).
The new pro-EU coalition government had earlier accused the nationalist PiS of purchasing Pegasus from the Israeli firm NSO to spy on government opponents, citing reports from Citizen Lab, a specialised unit at the University of Toronto, phone maker Apple and Amnesty International. PiS has rejected the accusations.
During the Wednesday vote 432 MPs supported the proposal in the 460-member lower house and no one was against nor abstained.
The Pegasus commission is to investigate the legality, correctness and purposefulness of operational and investigative activities undertaken with this spyware by, among others, the government, special services and police between November 16, 2015 and November 20, 2023.
The dates coincide with the eight-year rule of PiS.
The Sejm rejected an amendment suggested by PiS to extend the investigation period, starting from 2007. Michal Wojcik, the PiS MP who submitted it, argued that wiretapping was more frequent during the rule of the Civic Platform (PO) and the Polish People's Party (PSL) in 2007-2015.
The commission will try to determine who was responsible for purchasing Pegasus and similar tools for the Polish authorities. It will also aim to investigate whether the operational and investigative activities conducted with Pegasus against Polish citizens were legal, correct and purposeful.
According to Citizen Lab reports, Pegasus was used to hack the mobile phones of some opposition members, including Senator Krzysztof Brejza, who at the time of the attack was head of a parliamentary campaign for Civic Coalition (KO), PiS's main rival. Other Pegasus victims included Roman Giertych, a lawyer representing the current Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a prosecutor who launched an investigation unfavourable to the government and the leader of a farmers' movement criticising the government's rural policies. (PAP)
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