The head of the court of inquiry number 20 of Barcelona has asked the Spanish Government to declassify secret official documents related to the purchase or use of Pegasus software to allegedly spy on the mobile phones of ERC deputies Josep Maria Jové and Diana Riba.
In a providence to which the EFE agency has had access, it has agreed that it will cite the current director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), Esperanza Casteleiro, and the company OSY Technologies, of the Israeli group NSO, which markets the Pegasus program, once you have been notified of the complaint.
The judge has adopted these decisions after in mid-March the Barcelona Court partially considered an appeal raised by ERC and ordered it to carry out some of the proceedings requested by the two defendants, among which, the appearance as a witness of the president of the CNI.
Riba and Jové’s lawyer, Andreu Van den Eynde, requested the declassification of the official documents linked to the purchase or use of Pegasus to prevent Casteleiro from refusing to testify before the judge on the grounds that he had not official secrecy lifted, a situation similar to that which happened to the Commission of Inquiry of the European Parliament on this alleged case of espionage. Last May, Casteleiro replaced Paz Esteban at the head of the CNI, dismissed by the Spanish Government following the controversy over espionage with Pegasus.
In a statement, ERC has expressed its satisfaction with this judicial decision, since it understands that it “increases the pressure” on the central government “to give explanations about Catalangate, while Van den Eynde has emphasized that they are putting Spain and its structures “in chess”.
The republican party highlights in its statement that representatives of the Spanish Government have reiterated their “total willingness” to collaborate with justice in the declassification of official documents related to the National Center’s activities.
In her ruling, the judge also agrees to call the two Republican plaintiffs as witnesses.
