Barcelona court reopens Pegasus surveillance case against Òmnium members. A court in Barcelona has ordered the reopening of the investigation into Pegasus surveillance of Òmnium activists. The government has been asked to provide information about the CNI's involvement. The ruling could affect other similar cases as well.
In Barcelona, judges of the Appeals Chamber have decided to reopen the investigation into the alleged use of Pegasus spyware against members of Òmnium. The court found signs of a possible crime in the case and instructed the court of first instance to submit an official request to the Council of Ministers for information regarding the National Intelligence Center's (CNI) involvement in the surveillance of activists.
Request to the government
The focus is on former Òmnium vice president Marcel Mauri, Meritsell Bonet, the partner of former president Jordi Cuixart, and legal affairs coordinator Elena Jiménez. The judges noted that there are grounds to believe their phones could have been tapped without authorization, and the trail leads to the CNI. Now it is the Council of Ministers that must decide whether to provide the information requested by the court in this case.
Criticism of case closure
Earlier, the court of first instance closed the investigation, but the defense of Òmnium, represented by lawyer Benet Salellas, appealed this decision. The appeal stated that the judge ignored requests to question the victims and failed to request data from either state or European authorities, as well as from Pegasus' developing companies. The Appeals Chamber emphasized that the evidence presented by the victims was not refuted and could point to the involvement of the CNI or associated individuals.
Related cases and new steps
The court recalled that similar Pegasus cases had already been heard in other courts, where the victims were people from the entourage of former ERC leader Sergi Sabrià. According to the panel, the coincidence of circumstances may indicate a single source of wiretapping. At the same time, the court specified that at this stage it is not necessary to bring charges against specific individuals, and a request for information should be denied only if there are absolutely no grounds, which is not the case here.
Restrictions for Pegasus developers
The court refused to summon the heads of NSO Group, Q Cyber Technologies Limited, and OSY Technologies, the companies that developed Pegasus, for questioning, since so far there is no evidence of their direct involvement in violations. Instead, the court allowed an official request to be sent to Israel to obtain technical data and information about possible use of the software against Spanish citizens.
Questions about illegal surveillance and wiretapping in Spain are not being raised for the first time. Previously, cases were already discussed in the country where police officers admitted to unauthorized monitoring of private individuals, as in the case involving Bárcenas's wife — more details can be found in the article about police officers admitting to surveillance without a court warrant.
