Polish Politician’s Phone Patrolled by Pegasus

Polish special services reportedly used the infamous Pegasus mobile spyware to monitor the phone of a mayor backing government opposition, according to a new report.

Polish liberal news outlet Gazeta Wyborcza, characterized by Reuters as being openly against the county’s ruling “PiS” nationalists, reported while Sopot mayor Jacek Karnowski was working to elect opposition candidates in Poland’s upper house of Parliament between 2018 and 2019, he was targeted by Israel-based NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. The report added that Karnowski’s name was also discovered on a list of targets hacked with Pegasus spyware by Poland’s special services.

“We will not allow the PiS machine to further destroy democracy, lead Poland to the East and sovietise our country,” Karnowski told Reuters in reaction to the report. “The politicians who inspired and commissioned these activities belong in prison.”