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European Parliament: Morocco to appear before the Pegasus Committee on February 9

Morocco will be on the agenda of the European Parliament’s committee in charge of the Pegasus spying affair, scheduled to meet on 9 February, reveals a Belgian media.

“Until now, Morocco has been spared the work of the Pegasus committee, but it will be on the agenda of a meeting in the European Parliament,” writes the daily Le Soir.

According to a “European source” quoted by the Belgian newspaper, “it is important to put the subject on the table since the commission has not spoken about Morocco until now”.

A panel of experts will be invited to discuss the Moroccan case at the next meeting of the committee in charge of the Pegasus affair, on 9 February, on the proposal of the Greens, reports Le Soir.

The corruption scandal, in which Morocco is implicated, “has obviously broken a few dikes”, the newspaper points out, recalling that “in mid-January, MEPs adopted for the first time in a quarter of a century a resolution that criticised the human rights record in Morocco”.

On 19 January, experts presented a study entitled “Pegasus and the EU’s external relations” to the European Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry into the use of Zionist-made spyware and equivalent surveillance software, in which Morocco is involved.

In this study, it is clearly stated that “debates over the pressure exerted on governments regarding the use of spyware have been underreported. When the Moroccan government was accused of using Pegasus against Spanish politicians, the Spanish government did not react and took no action as it sought to maintain enhanced cooperation on migration and border control with the Moroccan regime.”

Recently, Hasni Abidi, the director of the Center for the Study of the Arab World in Geneva, stated on the Franco-German channel Arte that “all Western chancelleries did everything to stifle this affair (the use of Pegasus by Morocco against European personalities, Ed.) and some parliamentarians close to the Moroccan authorities also did everything for the European Parliament not to condemn Moroccan practices in terms of espionage.”

The Pegasus affair is “the overuse by the Moroccan authorities of a spyware software sold (by the Zionist entity) to very few states, Morocco benefited from it and the justice spoke of 100,000 personalities who were spied on, including of course European personalities, parliamentarians, and ministers,” Abidi stated.

It is worth noting that after the scandal involving the Makhzen in the corruption affair of European parliamentarians, Andrea Cozzolino, a member of the S&D group (Social Democrats) and one of the first individuals targeted by the legal proceedings initiated by Belgian justice, was forced to resign from both the special parliamentary commission on the Pegasus program and the joint Morocco-European Union commission. This was due to allegations that his political actions were influenced in the name of Morocco in exchange for money.

In July 2021, a worldwide investigation conducted by prominent international media organizations uncovered the use of the Pegasus spyware, which was developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, among others. This revelation had far-reaching implications, as the software was used to target individuals, including journalists, politicians, and human rights activists, both in Morocco and abroad. It is estimated that over 100,000 political and media personalities were targeted by this sophisticated spyware, raising serious concerns about privacy and human rights abuses.

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