BRUSSELS, 20 Apr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Gonzalo Boye, lawyer for the former president of the Generalitat and Junts MEP, Carles Puigdemont, pointed out this Thursday in an appearance at the Pegasus espionage investigation commission in the European Parliament that espionage with the Pegasus software, which he has attributed to Spain , is “an attack on the Catalan minority”.
In an appearance with alleged victims of cyber espionage, the lawyer has claimed to be the object of “illegal” espionage by the Spanish State for two years, in which the intrusion into his personal device has affected the defense of the pro-independence leaders and the very integrity of the Court of Justice of the EU and the European Parliament, where the process of withdrawing the immunity of Puigdemont and the former councilors Toni Comin and Clara Ponsati was carried out.
“The reason why I have been under espionage this time is only one: my list of clients and specifically Puigdemont and other Catalan pro-independence politicians,” he stressed before the European Parliament’s commission of inquiry.
Boye has stressed that espionage with the Pegasus program affects not only pro-independence leaders, but also their lawyers. “There is no legal basis for that,” he insisted, to reinforce the idea that it is “an attack on the Catalan national minority.”
Likewise, Puigdemont’s lawyer has cast doubt on whether the government is behind the espionage or whether it is just state agents. “Sometimes the Government does not have control of the State. The Government of Pedro Sánchez has the right to show that it has nothing to do with it, but trying to protect those who did this does not help in that direction,” he pointed out.
In question time, only the PSOE MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar has defended the legal procedure in Spain to spy with judicial authorization, while Diana Riba, from ERC, and Carles Puigdemont himself, have asked about the implications of espionage in the judicial processes against Catalan independentistas and the rendering of accounts of the CNI for these cases.
On previous occasions, Boyé has announced that he will take the report of the conclusions of the commission of investigation to the CJEU, which already in a preliminary text sees “gaps” in the legal framework of Spain to authorize the monitoring of people.
REPORT ON THE VISIT TO SPAIN
This same Thursday the Pegasus espionage investigation commission has approved the report on the visit to Spain, which took place at the end of March and in which the MEPs were able to investigate on the ground the use of this Pegasus cyber-surveillance program and listen to victims such as the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonés.
The document takes note of the Ombudsman’s report stating that the CNI acted “in accordance with the legal provisions on judicial authorization to intercept communications” of 18 people related to the independence referendum on October 1, following the protocols and providing a high level of detail to the Supreme Court.
Regarding the operation of the CNI, the report highlights the existence of regulations to obtain information and internal regulations in the CNI to evaluate the operation of the procedure that requires judicial authorizations.
