The boss of Spanish intelligence services was fired by the government on Tuesday after the scandal caused by the revelation that the phones of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Catalan separatists had been tapped.
The government today decided to make a change in the leadership of CNIthe National Intelligence Center, announced the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, Minister responsible for intelligence services, at the conclusion of the Council of Ministers.
First woman appointed, in 2020, to head of CNIPaz Esteban appeared within a few days as the designated victim of this spy scandal.
At age 64, this graduate in philosophy and letters has worked for nearly 40 years at CNI. He will be replaced by Esperanza Casteleiro Llamazares, the current number two of Ms. Robles of the Ministry of Defense
18 Catalan separatists under surveillance
Asked on Thursday by a parliamentary commission, Paz Esteban admitted, according to Spanish media reports, that 18 Catalan separatists had been the subject of wiretapping by CNIbut there is always the green light of justice, therefore legally.
Among them was the current president of the region, Pere Aragonés, when he was vice president.
Government sources quoted in the media have since assured that the executive was not informed of these wiretappings, despite the overly sensitive nature of the Catalan question.
This scandal has rocked Spain since the publication, on April 18, of a report by the Canadian organization Citizen Lab that says they have identified more than 60 people from the separatist movement whose cellphones were allegedly hacked between 2017 and 2020 of Pegasus spyware.
The Prime Minister and Minister of Defense also spied
But it took on a whole new dimension with the government’s May 2 announcement that Mr. Sánchez and Ms. Robles itself was detected in May and June 2021 by this same software, created by the Israeli company NSO, in the frame of a external attack.
The executive, who revealed on Tuesday that Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska’s cell phone, was also heard in May 2021, however said he did not know who the source might be, in the face of questions by the newspaper on possible involvement of Morocco.
This issue has caused a serious crisis between Mr. Sánchez’s minority government and the Catalan separatists, who have threatened to withdraw their support for him in Parliament, with the risk of causing his fall and early elections. The legislature will typically end by the end of 2023.
Supported by Podemos, a radical leftist member of the government party, they also claimed the leader of Mrs. Robles, who initially strongly supported the outgoing leader CNIbut the Prime Minister maintained his confidence in him.
In an attempt to calm tensions, Mr. Sánchez promised last week to shed light on this case through several investigations.
Spain’s secret services had already become the center of an illegal wiretap scandal in 1995 that resulted in their posts being headed to their leader, Emilio Alonso Manglano, the vice-president of the socialist government at the time, Narcis. Serra, and Defense Minister Julian García Vargas.
Recently, the former head of CNIFélix Sanz Roldán, was accused by a former wife of former leader Juan Carlos of threatening him not to reveal certain secrets, which he denied in court.
Pegasus-which allows access to messaging, data or remote activation of a smartphone’s cameras and microphone-and the Israeli company NSO that designed it have been the subject of serious accusations since a media release consortium last summer that this software was used to spy on the phones of hundreds of politicians, journalists, human rights activists or business leaders.
Mr. Sánchez was the first Head of State or Government to declare that he had been spotted using Pegasus.
Source: Radio-Canada
