The widow of slain Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi filed a legal complaint in France on Monday, accusing Saudi Arabia of using Israeli spyware to steal data from her phones before her husband’s murder. According to the AFP agency, the woman’s lawyers informed about it on Monday. The French judiciary will now decide whether to open an investigation into the matter.
- The widow filed a legal complaint against Saudi Arabia in France.
- The allegation is related to the use of Pegasus spyware to obtain data.
- The French judiciary will decide whether to open an investigation.
- Pegasus was identified on the woman’s phone by experts.
- The American secret services accuse the prince of killing a dissident.
Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, whose husband was murdered at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, claims that part of her data was stolen in France, where she repeatedly landed while working as a flight attendant.
Spyware Pegasus identified
Researchers from the University of Toronto’s specialized research center, Citizen Lab, discovered that the woman’s two phones were attacked by the Pegasus spyware, which is produced by the Israeli company NSO Group, in April 2018.
According to her, her phone being infected coincided with her interrogation at an airport in the United Arab Emirates, which is a close ally of Saudi Arabia.
“It is inconceivable not to see a connection between this interception (of information) and the steps that led to the murder” of her husband, lawyers William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth said in a joint statement to AFP.
Government clients of Pegasus
Amnesty International said in 2022 that it had identified 11 government clients of Pegasus — software that can turn on a target’s cell phone’s camera and microphone and extract data from it, turning the phone into a pocket spy.
Khashoggi was a US resident and wrote critical articles about the Saudi Arabian kingdom as a columnist for The Washington Post.
Involvement of the Crown Prince
The US secret services concluded that the operation to kill Khashoggi was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. The journalist was murdered and dismembered at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.
The French legal complaint, which does not name a specific culprit, comes after a US judge in October ordered a preliminary injunction barring NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users.
The lawsuit, filed in late 2019, accuses NSO Group of cyber-espionage targeting journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and others using the encrypted communications service.
