Polish Prosecutor General: PiS authorities used spyware against hundreds of people

Poland’s attorney general told parliament on Wednesday that the powerful Pegasus spying program was used against hundreds of people, including elected officials, under the previous government of the Law and Justice (PiS) party.

Adam Bodnar told lawmakers he found the scale of the surveillance “shocking and depressing.”

“I feel sad that even in this room I am speaking to people who have become victims of this system,” Bodnar told the lower house of parliament.

The attorney general, who is also the justice minister, did not specify who was being monitored through the spying program. His office said the information was confidential.

A. Bodnar presented the information that the General Prosecutor’s Office sent to the Seimas and the Senate last week. The data showed that Pegasus was used in 578 cases between 2017 and 2022, and that the program was used by three separate government agencies: the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Military Counterintelligence Service and the Homeland Security Agency.

In December 2021, the AP reported on the abuse of the Pegasus program by former governments, based on an examination by the University of Toronto’s Internet monitoring service Citizen Lab.

Bodnar said the software provided a wealth of knowledge about the private and professional lives of those being monitored. He also emphasized that the Polish state cannot fully control the collected data, as the system operates under a license granted by an Israeli company.

He said that “the use of this kind of method must raise serious doubts from the point of view of the protection of constitutional rights.”

Developed by Israeli company NSO Group, Pegasus is marketed to governments and described as a tool to fight criminals and terrorists. But evidence has emerged that governments are using it against political opponents, journalists and human rights workers.

The administration of United States President Joe Biden, concerned about the potential misuse of this technology, blacklisted the UFO Group in 2021 and banned it from using US technology. This year, it went a step further by imposing visa restrictions on foreign nationals linked to the misuse of commercial spyware.

Pegasus gives operators full access to the mobile device and allows them to extract passwords, photos, messages, contacts and browsing history, and enable the microphone and camera to listen in on real-time conversations.

Its use in Poland under the previous PiS government led to accusations that the authorities abused their powers and undermined democratic safeguards.

Investigations into the use of the spying program began after Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who leads a three-party coalition, took office in December.

Last month, PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski testified to the commission of inquiry that Pegasus was used according to the law and that 99 percent of in some cases it has been used against criminals.

In an interview with the private broadcaster TVN24 earlier this month, Tomasz Siemoniak, the current minister responsible for security services, said that due to too frequent unjustified use of the software, Poland lost its license to use it.

Mr Bodnar is also seeking to address the issue of judicial independence after the previous government overhauled the justice system to give it more control over the courts.

PiS’s practices have led the European Union to withhold billions of euros in funding, money that is already being paid out now that the government has changed.