Pegasus Case: Morocco Will Initiate Legal Actions in Spanish Courts

Morocco, through the law firm of Ernesto Díaz-Bastien y Abogados, SLP (EDBA), will initiate legal actions in Spanish courts for repeated publication and dissemination in Spanish territory of false, malicious and defamatory allegations against the Kingdom, and this in connection with “an alleged illegal espionage of Spanish citizens”. “The Kingdom of Morocco has never acquired or used the program called Pegasus. The recent information published on this issue is false and malicious,” said a statement from the law firm on Saturday. “Those who claim the contrary will have to answer to it in court”, said the same source. These actions in Spain come after the defamation proceedings already initiated by Morocco in France against Amnesty International, Forbidden Stories, Le Monde, Mediapart and Radio France, and in Germany against the newspaper publishing company “Süddeutsche Zeitung GmbH”. Indeed, on July 22, Morocco launched a first defamation proceedings against Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories, the two organizations behind Morocco’s accusations of infiltrating the phones of several national and foreign public figures through the software called “Pegasus”. On July 28, Morocco had filed with the French courts new direct defamation complaints against the daily Le Monde and its director Jérôme Fenoglio, the news site Mediapart and its owner Edwy Plenel, and Radio France. On August 2, Morocco, represented by its ambassador in Berlin Zohour Alaoui, filed, in Germany, a request for an injunction against the newspaper publishing company “Süddeutsche Zeitung GmbH”, for “false allegations in connection with a coverage on the alleged use of Pegasus spyware by the Kingdom of Morocco”. In an interview given recently to the pan-African magazine Jeune Afrique, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, Nasser Bourita, had affirmed that any person or organization bringing accusations against Morocco, will have to provide proof, or assume its libellous denunciation in court. Morocco has chosen to trust justice, nationally and internationally, Bourita had underlined in reaction to the persistent media campaign about an alleged infiltration of the phones of several national and foreign public figures through the computer software called Pegasus. Alongside the legal actions in France, Germany and Spain, Morocco has taken its own steps to prove the illegality of the allegations made against it.