Spain’s Intelligence Agency (CNI) chief, Paz Esteban, has been dismissed by the Spanish government over the phone hacking scandal of senior politicians. The intelligence agency has been accused of using Israeli NSO group’s Pegasus spyware to spy on the mobiles of pro-independence Catalan leaders. It was later, also revealed that the phones of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Defence Minister Margarita Robles was also hacked in 2021 by an unnamed foreign entity who also used Pegasus. The head of Spain’s police and border control agencies, Fernando Grande-Marlaska was also targeted by Pegasus.
The intelligence chief has reportedly been sacked over snooping on leaders of the Catalan independence movement and failure to prevent the phone hacking of Prime Minister, Defence minister and other senior politicians. Paz Esteban had taken the position of intelligence agency head in 2020 after years of service in the organization.
Paz Esteban appeared last week before a committee to explain the snooping on Catalan leaders. She reportedly, said that the agency had wire-tapped 18 pro-independence leaders, as per law under court orders.
Defence Minister Robles, in a statement, said, “It is clear there are things that we need to improve, given that [the hacking of government officials] took a year to discover.” She added, “We are going to try to ensure that these attacks don’t happen again, even though there is no way to be completely safe.”
The intelligence chief is set to be replaced by another female intelligence veteran, Esperanza Casteleiro. Casteleiro currently holds the position of deputy defence minister in Spain.
It is to be noted that the investigation had started after cybersecurity experts at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto in Canada had said that at least 63 people connected with the Catalan independence movement had been targeted or infected with Pegasus spyware between 2017 and 2020.
