Ministerial admission of illegality: the Cypriot government has purchased surveillance software/systems
Tell us who and how many others are you watching Mrs. Drakou?
Press release by AKEL MEP Giorgos Georgiou
13 July 2022
PEGASUS, along with all surveillance software, is killing democracy, the freedom of the press, the presumption of innocence, the right to privacy, freedom of expression and association…
On 21 June the European Parliament’s PEGASUS Special Committee, in which I, as Vice-Chairman, represent the Left Group GUE/NGL and Cyprus, held a hearing with Chaim Gelfand, General Counsel/Chief Compliance Officer of NSO, as a guest.
The invitation extended to the NSO Company was deemed necessary due to the huge revelations about its activities regarding the creation/development and sale of spy software.
During the Hearing, I asked Mr. Gelfand directly whether his company had sold this software to the government agencies of Cyprus. Or was it sold through Cyprus, an EU country, to other EU countries, to overcome the need for his company to obtain a licence from the Israeli government, which is viewed as a hindrance. I also asked him if he knew if the legal status of Cyprus permitted him to engage in such activities…
Mr. Gelfand refused to answer who uses the PEGASUS system in Cyprus. As to whether anything was sold through Cyprus, he made it clear that they did not and would never sell Pegasus through Cyprus. Stressing that such a practice would not be legal either in terms of Israeli export control since any export, even of other technology, would require licenses.
I am not sure if PEGASUS as such was sold in Cyprus.
That is for the government to answer.
But it seems that the Cypriot government has purchased other monitoring/surveillance software/systems. This, at least, was admitted by the Minister of Justice herself, who in a letter sent to the Prisons Directorate gave instructions on how to use the potential of the “system” for surveillance. I note that without a decree to that effect, the interception, collection, retention and processing of personal telecommunications data is expressly prohibited.
This is an admission of illegality which, I am certain, has been recorded outside Cyprus as well and for which the Cypriot government should be held accountable.
We demand the necessary clarifications from the Minister of Justice…
Does the Cypriot government possess surveillance software?
Have you also purchased PEGASUS?
From where, when and why did it obtain them?
Has the Cypriot Government ever used such software?
We await the Minister’s answers to we come back to the whole issue.
