Probe finds police used NSO spyware only with warrants

NSO Group  credit: Shutterstock
NSO Group credit: Shutterstock

The examination team headed by the Deputy Attorney General found no evidence to support allegations in reports by "Calcalist".

The examination team headed by Deputy Attorney General Amit Marari and including two former department heads in the Israel Security Agency, which was appointed to investigate various claims raised in reports in Israeli business newspaper "Calcalist" of apparent illegal use of spyware by the Israel Police,has submitted its findings to the Attorney General.

The team, which was assisted by technological experts, examined whether Pegasus software produced by NSO was planted in mobile telephones belonging to a list of people named in the reports, without a warrant.

The team's main finding, which is also based on information provided by NSO, is that there is no indication that the police planted its version of Pegasus spyware ("Saifan") without a warrant on telephones belonging to any of the people named.

According to the information supplied to the team, warrants for intercepting communications between computers are in place for three of the people named. The team finds that attempts were made to plant spyware on the telephones of two of these people, and only in one case did the attempt succeed: that of former Ministry of Communications Shlomo Filber, who is a state's witness in the trials of Benjamin Netanyahu and Shaul and Iris Elovitch.

The examination also covered another system that has recently been brought into use, and in its case too no indication was found that it had been used against any of the people in the reports.

The examination was carried out on telephone numbers supplied by the police. In most cases, the numbers were verified by the team independently.

Unless the appropriate authorities decide otherwise, the team will continue its work of examining the use by the Israel Police of interception of communications between computers.

Sources in the Israel Police said, "From the first moment, we said we were certain of our assertions that no-one carried out phone tapping without a signed judicial warrant, and that every action carried out was in accordance with the law. The committee did well in giving a full and true picture of the state of affairs in the face of a tidal wave of fake news."

Minister of Internal Security Omer Bar-Lev said, "The conclusions of the examination team headed by Deputy Attorney General Adv. Amit Marari confirm what I argued from the outset, that there is no indication that the Israel Police planted the Pegasus system it possesses without a judicial warrant, and this is a ringing vindication for the Israel Police and the people in uniform."

"Calcalist" responded in a statement: "The findings of the examination team's interim report call for serious attention and a review of the findings and claims published in Calcalist, and that's what we shall do. Because of the short time between the publication of the interim report yesterday evening and the time when the newspaper went to press, this review has not yet taken place. When we conclude it, we shall not hesitate to correct as much as required.

"At the same time, the interim report completely validates Calcalist's exposé of the use by the police of highly invasive offensive spyware planted on citizens' telephones. The warrants given for interception of communications do not give legal powers for using such spyware, and there is a need for significant amendment of the law.

"To the best of our knowledge, the finding in the interim report that there was no hacking of telephones of most of the people mentioned in the list rests on technological examinations, and not on interrogation by the Police Investigations Department of those who operated the spyware. It would seem that the team relied in its conclusions on materials supplied to it from the police and from NSO.

"It is also important to mention that the interim report deals solely with the list of names published by Calcalist. As it states at the end of its report, the team has still not examined many of the main issues raised in our investigative reports. The wording of the report's compilers itself testifies to the problematic nature of these issues: 'The use and treatment by the police of telephone tapping… how far and in what way the tools in the possession of the police match the powers given to it by law, and the way these tool are used, including in additional systems that were or are used by the Israel Police, the existence of indications that powers were exceeded, supervision and control in real time and in retrospect of all stages of the police's work in this area.'"

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 22, 2022.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2022.

NSO Group  credit: Shutterstock
NSO Group credit: Shutterstock
Twitter Facebook Linkedin RSS Newsletters גלובס Israel Business Conference 2018