Amnesty International calls on Thailand to investigate spying on dissidents with Pegasus software

July 18 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The NGO Amnesty International (AI) on Monday urged the Thai authorities to open an investigation into the alleged espionage of some thirty dissidents in the context of the protests that took place in 2021 in the country with the Israeli software Pegasus.

The organization’s complaint comes after a new report came to light indicating that the mobile phones of thirty people were infected with the program in what would be the first use of Pegasus in the country.

The document has been released by the organizations iLaw, Digital Reach and The Citizen Lab and indicates that this espionage took place in 2020 and 2021 against influential individuals in the macro of the wave of protests to demand greater political and economic reform. Many of them had been critical of the Thai government.

Amnesty itself has managed to confirm at least five of these cases after a series of analyzes and investigations. “We can officially add Thailand to the growing list of people who for expressing their opinion or talking about government policies have been the victims of invasive surveillance and a violation of their freedom of expression and privacy,” said Etienne Maynier of AI. .

“You have to remember that this is only what has been discovered so far and that the scale of these attempts could be much larger and more damaging,” he said.

The report indicates that the ‘software’ was found on the mobile phones of protesters such as Arnon Nampa, Benja Apan, Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul and other activists for expressing their opinion and exercising their right to freedom of expression. “Instead of listening to protesters and academics, surveillance has been used to harass and intimidate these people,” he said.

Thus, he stressed that governments have “obligations under International Law not only to respect Human Rights but also to protect them from abuse by third parties, including private companies.”

“The Thai authorities must launch an independent, thorough and effective investigation against the use of this program and take the necessary measures in this regard,” Maynier said.