The Hungarian government denies involvement in the surveillance of independent journalists and human rights activists through the Pegasus spy software of the Israeli company NSO, which is sold exclusively to governments.
Kyiv. Ukraine. Ukraine Gate – July 20, 2021 – International News
In particular, information about the involvement of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and other politicians in espionage is widespread in Hungary. It is noted that the software became more active in the period when a number of journalists worked on investigative materials.
The Pegasus software of the Israeli company NSO is sold exclusively to the state authorities. At the same time, the Hungarian government denies the fact that it bought it.
The Washington Post has published an official response from Prime Minister Orban’s Office to the suspicions and allegations. The answer is that Hungary’s intelligence services are regularly monitored by governmental and non-governmental institutions.
“Have you asked the same questions to the governments of the United States, Britain, Germany, and France? If so, how long did it take them to respond, and how did they respond? Did any special services help you with the wording of the questions? “, – the edition quotes the answer of office.
At the same time, Foreign Minister Peter Siyarto said he was unaware of the surveillance.
“The government does not know anything about this type of data collection,” Foreign Minister Peter Siyyarto told a news conference, adding that Hungarian civil intelligence had not used Pegasus software in any way, “Siyarto said.
The European Union has responded to the incident. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has spoken out against reports that Israeli software has been used to hack into the smartphones of journalists, government officials, and human rights activists around the world, Deutsche Welle reports.
“What we see in the media needs to be verified. But if this is true, it is absolutely unacceptable. This is against any rules that exist in the European Union, “von der Leyen said during a visit to Prague.
Earlier, a number of media outlets reported that authoritarian states and various intelligence services could monitor hundreds of human rights defenders, journalists, and politicians for years using a spyware program developed by the Israeli firm NSO Group.
Such data were obtained as a result of a journalistic investigation of the “Pegasus Project”, which involved the German media.
In order, the journalistic consortium, which included 16 revisions, got a list of 50 thousand telephone numbers – potential targets of surveillance – from several dozen countries.
In more than 1,000 cases, the owners of these numbers have been identified, including high-ranking politicians, lawyers, journalists, and human rights activists from France, the United States, India, Morocco, Mexico, Hungary, and a number of other countries.
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Source: Ukrgate
