The Polish government had launched a probe into the use of the Israeli spyware Pegasus by the previous government, The Guardian reported on Monday.
The parliamentary inquiry could potentially result in criminal charges being made against former Polish officials, the source claimed.
Polish Justice Minister Adam Bodnar told The Guardian that victims of government surveillance would be made aware in the coming months and that they would have the opportunity to seek financial compensation and justice in a criminal court.
“There is a decent chance that within a couple of months we’ll have quite extensive knowledge how this equipment was used and for what purpose,” said Bodnar.
“We don’t know who will be accused,” Bodnar continued. “ … If the investigation goes into the direction of accusing some persons, some ministers or officers of the security services.”
Israeli spyware and global controversy
Designed by the NSO Group, Pegasus allows users to take control of a target’s phone, record them and access secured information held on the device.
In 2021, media outlets were made aware of a leak which saw the personal information of thousands of Pegasus targets, across multiple countries, released. This later led investigating parties to discover Hungary’s former prime minister had been targeting members of the media and civil society with spyware, according to the source.
A separate 2021 investigation by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab reportedly sourced Pegasus use to Poland’s Civic Platform party. One target of the observation was MEP Krzysztof Brejza, who at the time was running an election campaign for Civic Platform.
“This list is significantly more extensive than the list that has been made public already, a lot of other interesting public people,” Bodnar stressed. “Apparently all those requests for using Pegasus had court authorisation, but most probably the courts didn’t know what kind of equipment would be used … They were authorising this but they did not know that [it involved] a programme that doesn’t have proper authorisation, and the data is going to Israel.”
Searching the homes of gov’t officials
Polish special services searched the homes of former Law and Justice (PiS) government officials for the second time in March as part of an investigation into alleged misuse of funds managed by the justice ministry, a prosecution spokesperson said.
The nationalist PiS lost power after eight years in October 2023 to a coalition of pro-Europe parties headed by Donald Tusk's Civic Platform.
The new government says those accused of breaking the law during PiS rule will be held to account by prosecutors who it says are now free of political influence.
On Tuesday, special services forced their way into the home of former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro and the prosecution said four people - three former justice ministry officials and one beneficiary of the fund - had been detained.
In March, officers searched the room of former Deputy Justice Minister Michal Wos in a hotel belonging to the parliament and another house belonging to Ziobro's family, a prosecution spokesperson said. Wos said his home outside Warsaw was also searched.
The investigation regards the alleged misuse of money from the Justice Fund, which was set up to help victims of crime.
"I have nothing to reproach myself for. Everything was legal when I supervised the Justice Fund...I will file a complaint against the prosecution," Wos told reporters.
A former Supreme Audit Office president said in front of a parliamentary commission in March that he had proof that 25 million zlotys ($6.3 million) from the fund were spent on Pegasus spyware which the new government says was used under PiS against some of its politicians.
Local media reported the funds were also used to curry favor among rural PiS voters, such as by buying fire engines or equipment for country housewives' associations.
Ziobro, who said he was undergoing chemotherapy after surgery for esophageal cancer, called the search of his house a "spectacle of banditry and lawlessness."
"I have currently interrupted my post-surgery therapy to come here today from afar," Ziobro told reporters late on Tuesday in front of his house, which was still being searched.
"All these actions are illegal, it's an implementation of political orders of [Prime Minister] Donald Tusk and Bodnar."
Ziobro was the architect of judicial reforms that critics said undermined the independence of the courts. He has previously denied any wrongdoing.
($1 = 3.9822 zlotys)