Justice minister vows no ‘whitewashing’ as police deny latest claims of illicit spyware use; defense lawyers in Netanyahu trial said to insist on NSO Group’s involvement in probe
Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Monday vowed claims of illicit police phone hacking would be thoroughly investigated, saying any officials found to have engaged in unauthorized surveillance of Israelis would be punished.
Sa’ar was interviewed by Israel’s leading television networks following an explosive report earlier in the day by the Calcalist business daily alleging that police used the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to snoop on the phones of government officials, mayors, activists, journalists and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyanu’s family members and advisers, all without judicial authority or oversight.
Speaking with Channel 12 news, Sa’ar said prosecutors were currently aware of only one case, acknowledged several days ago, in which police illicitly “drained” someone’s phone — an apparent reference to the targeting of Netanyahu trial state’s witness Shlomo Filber’s, which police and prosecution sources have claimed was carried out by mistake.
“Everything published today in Calcalist is not known to the Justice Ministry,” Sa’ar said.
The network also said that following the newspaper report, police denied engaging in “fishing,” maintaining that only the phones of criminal suspects were targeted and that any hacking was court approved.
Sa’ar voiced support for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the allegations, saying it would have “all the relevant investigatory tools” to properly probe the matter.
“There won’t be whitewashing,” he told the Kan public broadcaster. “If someone did anything without authorization, he will be punished.”
In a separate interview with Channel 13, Sa’ar said he operated under the assumption that his phone can be hacked and secrets exposed, and others should use caution as well.
Asked whether he checked to see if the Pegasus spyware was on his phone, he said no, and noted that a few years ago, when he was told a news organization may have broken into his phone, he just threw it away and got a new one.
“I think someone who lives in our time needs to be cautious,” he said. But pressed on whether Israelis should be worried that they were being spied on, he backtracked and appeared to suggest that only those who had access to sensitive materials need to be careful.
He said that Israel could not abandon its police force over the scandal, since “we don’t have a spare police force. There’s nobody else on the front lines against crime.”
Sa’ar also defended choosing a relatively unknown lawyer, Gali Baharav-Miara, as the new attorney general, saying that lawyers are generally “not celebrities” and denying he was in thrall to her.
He touted Baharav-Miara as “by far the most experienced, the most appropriate and the most fit for the job,” and said he never spoke with her or with outgoing Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri about a possible plea bargain with Netanyahu in the ex-premier’s criminal trial.
According to Channel 13 news, police have informed prosecutors that the spying allegations should not affect the cases against Netanyahu, as no evidence was illicitly maintained.
Earlier Monday, the Jerusalem District Court rejected an appeal by lawyers for Netanyahu and other defendants to delay the case in light of the hacking claims. However, the judges later canceled Tuesday’s hearing and gave prosecutors until Tuesday afternoon to respond to questions regarding the illicit phone spying.
Channel 12 said defense attorneys were expected to say they did not trust police to investigate the allegations and would only be satisfied if NSO Group accessed the relevant data, which the company is reportedly willing to do. Last week, the CEO of NSO Group dismissed Calcalist as “a tabloid” in a television interview.
Former police commissioners Yohanan Danino and Roni Alsheich have been refusing to be interviewed in the wake of the allegations, and Channel 12 quoted a police source as saying Alsheich must be investigated if police did indeed engage in illicit phone hacking.
“If illegal use was made of the bugging technology, a state commission of inquiry will have to investigate former police commissioner Roni Alsheich,” the source said. “If the reports are confirmed, Alsheich will go down as the police commissioner who did the greatest damage to the police, and he will have to be brought to justice for it.”
Earlier, Channel 12 reported that former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit ordered police to suspend “offensive” use of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware until an inquiry into its use was completed.
Mandelblit reportedly made the decision in his last days in office before retiring at the end of January. The move came alongside his decision to open an internal probe into the use of the spyware.
According to the Walla news site, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai has also ordered the use of NSO Group’s spyware to be halted until “an in-depth inquiry” was held.
Pegasus is considered one of the most powerful cyber-surveillance tools available on the market, giving operators the ability to effectively take full control of a target’s phone, download all data from the device, and activate its camera or microphone without the user knowing.
As reported by The Times of Israel