Arya News - The widow of slain Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi Monday filed a legal complaint in France accusing Saudi Arabia of using Israeli spyware to steal data from her phones before he was killed, her lawyers said.The lawsuit, filed in late 2019, accused NSO Group of cyberespionage targeting journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and others using the encrypted messaging service. cco-ah/yad
The widow of slain Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi Monday filed a legal complaint in France accusing Saudi Arabia of using Israeli spyware to steal data from her phones before he was killed, her lawyers said.
Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, whose husband was murdered at the kingdom"s Istanbul consulate in October 2018, alleged her data was in part stolen in France, where she landed repeatedly while working as an air hostess, according to a copy of the complaint seen by AFP.
Citizen Lab, a specialised research body at the University of Toronto, found that her two telephones were infected by Pegasus, a tool made by Israel-based firm NSO Group, in April 2018, the complaint showed.
It said the infection coincided with her interrogation at an airport in the United Arab Emirates, a staunch ally of Saudi Arabia.
"It would be unthinkable not to establish a link between this interception (of information) and the actions that led to the murder" of her husband, attorneys William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth said in a joint statement to AFP.
The French judiciary will now decide whether to investigate the complaint.
Amnesty International in 2022 said it had identified 11 government clients of Pegasus, software that can reportedly switch on a target"s cell phone camera and microphone and access data on it, effectively turning the phone into a pocket spy.
Khashoggi was a US resident who wrote critically about the kingdom as a columnist for The Washington Post.
A US intelligence assessment in 2021 concluded that Saudi Arabia"s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had ordered the operation to kill Khashoggi, who was murdered and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
But US President Donald Trump strenuously defended the prince last month when he visited Washington.
The French legal complaint, which does not specifically target one party, comes after a US judge in October granted an injunction barring NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users.
The lawsuit, filed in late 2019, accused NSO Group of cyberespionage targeting journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and others using the encrypted messaging service.
cco-ah/yad