Magdalena Sroka, chair of the Sejm investigative committee examining the use of Pegasus, presented the public part of the committee’s 370-page report on Monday. She said one of its main findings was that the Polish state did not have full control over the system.
According to the committee, part of the Pegasus infrastructure remained under the control of its Israeli manufacturer, NSO Group, while data extracted from targeted phones was transmitted through foreign IP addresses.
Sroka said the manufacturer had the technical ability to access material obtained through surveillance operations. Polish authorities had been warned about the risk of data leaving the country as early as 2017, she added.
The committee also found that Pegasus never received the required information and communications technology security accreditation. The Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), which acquired the system, did not ask the Internal Security Agency (ABW) to carry out the accreditation process.
The committee said this meant Pegasus was used without meeting requirements governing the protection of classified information. Sroka described the report as a document about “how public authorities in Poland reached for a tool that interfered with our civil rights.”
The inquiry also found that judges authorizing surveillance were not told about Pegasus’s full capabilities. Judges questioned by the committee said they had not known the software could provide access to an entire phone, including messages, photographs, contacts, location data and information stored before the surveillance order was issued.
Committee member Patryk Jaskulski of the governing Civic Coalition said most applications for operational surveillance had gone to the Warsaw Regional Court. "The judges’ trust was exploited by the services," he said. “Judges authorized operational surveillance, but they did not know the real capabilities of the tool being used.” He said judicial supervision had therefore been largely formal rather than an effective safeguard.
The committee said Pegasus cost PLN 33.4 million, about USD 9.2 million, to purchase, with more than PLN 8 million going to an intermediary company. Sroka said the figure did not include all later costs associated with operation, maintenance and license extensions.
The inquiry also examined the financing of the purchase. Most of the money, PLN 25 million, came from the Justice Fund, which was established primarily to support victims of crime.
Deputy committee chair Tomasz Trela of the Left said the report identified former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro as the person who initiated the purchase and offered to finance it from the fund.
Former Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński was described by the committee as the political organizer of the purchase, while former Deputy Justice Minister Michał Woś was said to have been responsible for the administrative transfer of the money.
The report also said Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jarosław Kaczyński knew about the planned acquisition before the transaction was completed.
Trela said the use of Justice Fund money for the purchase had been illegal and alleged that Justice Ministry officials concealed the true purpose of a PLN 25 million change to the fund’s financial plan from the deputy finance minister.
These are findings and allegations contained in the parliamentary committee’s report. Prosecutors are separately investigating suspected abuse of power and failure to carry out official duties in connection with the use of Pegasus. That investigation began in March 2024.
The committee also said several security institutions had raised objections or serious concerns about the planned purchase in 2017, including police headquarters, the Internal Security Agency and the Military Counterintelligence Service (SKW).
Committee member Witold Zembaczyński said Polish services also knew the software was subject to geographical restrictions imposed by its supplier. According to the report, Pegasus could not be used against targets in Russia, Israel, North Korea, China or Iran.
The committee argued that this contradicted claims that the system was needed, among other purposes, to combat crime and terrorism originating in Russia.
The Sejm established the inquiry in January 2024 to examine the legality and use of Pegasus by the government, security services and police between November 2015 and November 2023, when Law and Justice led Poland’s government.
Pegasus was developed by Israel’s NSO Group for use against terrorism and organized crime. Once a smartphone is infected, the software can gain extensive access to stored information as well as its microphone and camera.
Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab previously found that Pegasus had been used against figures associated with Poland’s then-opposition. Among the first cases disclosed was Krzysztof Brejza, a Civic Coalition lawmaker who was involved in his party’s 2019 parliamentary election campaign.
The committee is due to examine the classified section of its report at a separate closed meeting. Members will then be able to submit amendments before the final report is adopted and presented to the Sejm.
(rt)
Source: IAR/PAP