Just days after a new tension between the two countries over Western Sahara, Algiers said it was “deeply concerned” after revelations that Algerian officials could have been spied on via this spy program.
According to the press release from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Algiers condemns Morocco’s large-scale use Israeli software Pegasus against “Algerian citizens and officials” with a practice considered “illegal, unwelcome and dangerous”. The text strongly condemns this systematic “impermissible” attack on fundamental freedoms and reserves the right to “implement its response strategy” without further details.
According to a study by the Forbidden Stories consortium and Amnesty International, 6,000 Algerian phones have been identified as potential targets for Pegasus software. Among the targeted individuals: senior political, military and intelligence officials, including the current Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra, as well as the current and former Chief of Staff of the Army.
The official Algerian press agency APS indicates that the Algiers prosecutor, for his part, has ordered the opening of a preliminary investigation into “oppressed crimes and an attack on communications secrets”.
A case that comes as the relationship between the two has been particularly strained in recent days. Sunday, actually Algiers had recalled its ambassador to Rabat due to the dispute over Western Sahara. A reminder follows a meeting with non-aligned countries, where the Moroccan delegation had handed out a note supporting the right to self-determination of the “Kabyle people” in Algeria.
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