The Prosecutor’s Office has asked the Barcelona Court to close the case opened against the former director of the CNI Paz Esteban for spying on the mobile phone of the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, concluding that the attacks with Pegasus carried out during her mandate always had judicial endorsement.
In a letter, the public ministry adheres to the appeal that the State Attorney’s Office, which defends Esteban, presented against the decision of the investigating judge to keep the former director of the CNI as a defendant while it is clarified whether the espionage of Aragonès was supported at all. moment by the Supreme Court.
The head of the investigative court number 29 of Barcelona, ??Santiago García, already rejected the request of the State Attorney’s Office to file the case for Esteban, who in his appearance as an investigator did not provide any information about the attack with Pegasus on the cell phone of the president, beyond the Supreme Court rulings that endorsed the use of the software, hiding behind the fact that it concerns information protected by official secrets.
According to those records, which the Government sent to the instructor with deleted fragments alleging that they contain confidential information, the Supreme Court judge in charge of control of the CNI endorsed the spying on Aragonès’ cell phone in July 2019 – with two other extensions of three months of October 2019 and January 2020 -, after the secret services alleged that he coordinated the actions of the CDR.
However, a computer expert that Aragonès provided to the court concludes that the ERC leader had his cell phone infected with Pegasus between July 2018 and March 2020, beyond the period in which the CNI espionage had judicial coverage.
In his writing, the prosecutor recalls that Esteban headed the CNI between July 2019 and May 2022 – when he resigned as a result of the espionage scandal -, so “under no circumstances” could he be blamed for the eventual infections with Pegasus carried out. carried out on dates prior to his mandate.
The judge plans to commission another expert test from a police force to certify whether Aragonès’ cell phone could have been attacked on dates prior to those confirmed by the court, but the Prosecutor’s Office considers that, even if this point is proven, “in no way” would it distort the legality of Paz Esteban’s actions.
For the Computer Crimes Prosecutor, Roberto Valverde, searching for “possible irregularities and deviations from judicially authorized activity without there being any evidence of this” is unfounded and “collides head-on with the impossibility of addressing prospective investigations.”
In his letter, the prosecutor questions the conclusions of the computer expert provided by Aragonès and, specifically, points out that the reason why he mentions infections since the summer of 2018 in a phone model – iPhone 11 – must be clarified, which, he emphasizes, “didn’t go on sale until September 2019.”
For its part, the State Attorney’s Office insists that the case against Esteban be filed, arguing that the interference in Aragonès’s cell phone was judicially endorsed, so “it was lawful and legal,” according to its brief, to which EFE has had access. .
According to the Law Office, all interceptions of telephone and computer communications, as well as access to the hard drive and data associated with Aragonès’ communications, including his geolocation, were authorized by the Supreme Court judge in charge of controlling the CNI.
Sources close to Aragonès have regretted that the Prosecutor’s Office has been trying “from minute one” to block the investigations opened into spying on the independence movement with Pegasus, although the Barcelona Court has always agreed with those affected.
The same sources have added to EFE that the Prosecutor’s request shows that the public ministry has no interest in investigating the facts, which, they warn, contradicts the express warnings of the European Parliament.
