Posted: 10 Nov 2021 15:26 GMT
The arrest corresponds to the possible crime of “illegal intervention of communications aggravated to the detriment of a journalist.”
The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) of Mexico recently reported the first arrest in the country linked to the ‘Pegasus’ case, as the Israeli program used in different parts of the world to carry out espionage tasks is known.
Thus, on November 1, the Federal Ministerial Police (PFM) apprehended a man identified as Juan Carlos “G”, in the city of Querétaro. The procedure was ordered for his possible responsibility in the crime of “illegal intervention of communications aggravated to the detriment of a journalist,” the statement said.
Although the name of the alleged victim is not clarified in this announcement, on another occasion the Prosecutor’s Office had already publicly thanked the reporter Carmen aristegui, “for his complaint and permanent participation.” Therefore, it is not ruled out that this well-known local journalist has suffered from irregular monitoring activities.
Likewise, the person implicated was transferred to Mexico City, being at the disposal of the Justice. In this regard, the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) has already made its complaint. The crime attributed to “G” is aggravated, due to its apparent “purpose of affecting, limiting and undermine freedom of expression“.
A global plot
In mid-July, an investigation by Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories revealed that this software from the firm NSO Group had been used by different governments to spy on some 50,000 phones of activists, communicators and political dissidents, “to facilitate the commission of human rights violations on a large scale “.
On this, it is believed that Mexico was the country with the most potential targets, accounting for 15,000, including the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. It is even suspected that this system had its greatest boom under the mandate of Enrique Peña Nieto, who led the Executive between 2012 and 2018.
According to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the company VM Projects and Designs It was part of a network in charge of acquiring the software and marketing it to public organizations, such as the Center for Research and National Security (CISEN), the Ministry of the Interior or the Ministry of National Defense. In that firm worked “G”, the current detainee.
Regarding the development of the case, the judge in charge gave the Prosecutor’s Office four months to advance in the complementary investigation. Meanwhile, the accused remains deprived of his liberty in a preventive way, given the “danger of flight and the risks it represents for public safety and people related to the process.”
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