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Spain Shelves Pegasus Investigation Again After Israeli Non-Cooperation

The judge cites unanswered requests to Israel that blocked planned inquiries of NSO Group.

Overview

  • National Court judge José Luis Calama ordered a second provisional dismissal on January 22, invoking an “investigative impotence” that prevents further progress.
  • Spanish authorities sent repeated legal-assistance requests to Israel since 2022 to obtain NSO Group data and to question its CEO, but no replies arrived.
  • The ruling accuses Israel of failing to honor mutual-assistance obligations, leaving investigators unable to attribute the intrusions to any specific perpetrators.
  • Confirmed Pegasus infections targeted the phones of Pedro Sánchez and ministers Margarita Robles, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and Luis Planas in 2021, with up to 2.57 GB extracted from Sánchez’s device in May 2021.
  • The case was first archived in July 2023, later reopened with material from France that yielded no new leads, and now remains dormant unless cooperation or new evidence emerges.