National Court Judge Jose Luis Calama agreed to temporarily dismiss the case against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the Ministers of Defense, Interior and Agriculture for the infection of the Pegasus computer program of Margarita’s mobile devices. Robles, Fernando Grande-Marlasca and Luis Planas respectively. The magistrate accepts the file because of Israel’s non-response to the request sent by the National Court and Israel’s „complete” lack of legal cooperation, which has frustrated the continuation of the investigation. The judge moved to this position because Pegasus was located there.
In the temporary dismissal order, the president of the Fourth Central Investigative Court, reviewing all the actions taken throughout the case, followed by crimes such as discovery and disclosure of secrets, he says, „checked the own security. of the state”.
„Now, the frustration of the investigation obtained due to non-compliance with the letters sent to the Israeli authorities prevents us from investigating the authorship of any particular person, inevitably leads to agreeing to the temporary dismissal of the proceedings, due to the absence of a known author or authors, as provided in the aforementioned art. 641.2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure” concludes .
According to evidence collected throughout the investigation, the prime minister’s mobile phone was infected five times between October 2020 and December 2021. The first procedure diagnosed as benign occurred between May 19 and 21. Between 2021 and the two dates, the amount of information „exposed” was at least 2.57 GB. The second was discovered on May 31 and the information „exposed” was 130 MB.
As for the defense minister’s mobile, according to the order, it showed signs of being infected by Pegasus four times between May and October 2021, while the interior minister was infected on two occasions on June 2 and June 7. same year. For its part, the text explains that the mobile phone of the Minister of Agriculture was infected on June 25, 2021, although the amount of „released” information (less than 1 kb) „Vaccine” applications.
Analysis of these four devices with tools and techniques available at the National Decryption Center, dependent on the CNI, the organization said, the judge notes, did not allow determining the authorship of any of these infections.
As the judge explained in his order, software used in espionage „may in some cases allow the user to compromise the device without taking any prior action or knowledge of subsequent compromise.” „In addition -he continues- it has the ability to access practically any information stored on the device or to perform many actions such as activating the microphone, recording calls, accessing the GPS position or capturing the web pages viewed. .
In order to determine the identity of the people who committed the acts, the magistrate explains, Pegasus sought information from the company that owns the NSO group and sent a request for a report to Israel. Witness your CEO. A request for international legal cooperation, which should be extended once and recalled twice for compliance.
The judge wanted the sale of Pegasus approved to „any kind of buyer.” Among the questions sent to Pegasus that remained unanswered were whether the company could know who the technology was used against once it was sold. Failing that, Judge Pegasus asked if he could analyze the spies’ intent to determine which client had used it against them.
Four of Israel’s demands remained unanswered
„Unfortunately, at this practical moment, more than a year after the aforementioned letters were issued, no response has been received, despite being extended once, and compliance being reiterated twice. This silence clearly shows the complete lack of legal cooperation of the Government of Israel. It means that the letter in question sent four times will never be completed. Allows speculation”, warns the Magistrate.
Calama understands that while the provisions of Article 2 of the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters confer considerable enforcement discretion on the State making the request for legal cooperation, the exercise of this discretion is subject to an expressed duty of good faith. Codified in Article 26 of the 1969 Vienna Convention. This, in his view, should compel the State of Israel to articulate externally its reasons for refusing to process letters of rogatory, as well as to justify their place among the letters it has permitted. Aforesaid usual condition.
„At this stage, this court can do little or nothing to comply with the letter of reference and, therefore, to proceed with this investigation. What remains is a possible diplomatic channel, capable of promoting compliance with obligations derived from international treaties, and whose function corresponds to the government, in this case, also, under investigation. The victim of the crime. Undoubtedly, the State Attorney’s Office will appear in these proceedings as the practical representative of the General State Administration and promote the implementation of the said path through the means the Spanish Government has for such purposes,” he points out.
According to Kalama, the procedural situation described puts the practice of what the Supreme Court describes as „investigative impossibility”, which prevents us from knowing the true nature of what happened, and in this case, „as long as the process is inactive or hidden, Israel blocked the letter or the evidence of new evidence in a timely and impossible manner. Information obtained through execution allows the procedure to proceed.