Morocco demands Amnesty provide proof of journalist’s phone hacking

Moroccan authorities totally reject Amnesty International’s allegation that they hacked Omar Radi’s mobile phone, tells NGO’s executive director in Morocco that their report lacks “material evidence” to prove the allegations.

RABAT - Moroccan authorities totally and completely rejected Friday the allegations of Amnesty International's most recent report alleging that the North African country hacked journalist Omar Radi’s mobile phone.

The London-based human rights group found that Radi's phone was subjected to several attacks using a "sophisticated new technique" that silently installed NSO's Pegasus spyware.

“The attacks occurred over a period when Radi was being repeatedly harassed by the Moroccan authorities, with one attack taking place just days after NSO pledged to stop its products being used in human rights abuses and continued until at least January 2020,” Amnesty said.

Rabat demanded that Amnesty provide evidence of its contents.

The public authorities received yesterday Mohamed Siktawi, Executive Director of Amnesty International in Morocco, and expressed surprise at the organisation's claim in its report issued on June 22, 2020, that it had contacted the Moroccan authorities before the publication of this report.

Moroccan authorities deny having been contacted by Amnesty International, accusing the rights group for mobilising 17 media platforms across the world to promote its unfounded accusations that fall within the framework of an agenda targeting Morocco.

“Part of the agenda is linked to parties that harbour hate to the Kingdom, and others related to a competition between economic groups regarding the marketing of intelligence equipment,” reported state news agency MAP.

Morocco told Amnesty International’s executive director in Morocco that the report lacked “material evidence” to prove the allegations of Radi’s phone hacking, said MAP.

The statement announced that Morocco requested the executive director of Artificial Intelligence to provide material evidence as soon as possible to substantiate Amnesty’s allegation to allow Morocco to take action to preserve the rights of its citizens.

Pending the official response from Amnesty International, Morocco’s statement said that it did not notice any new development in the NGO’s approach away from the “slippages that contradict the rules of commitment to defending human rights.”

Pending receipt of a detailed official response from the rights group, Moroccan authorities said that they did not notice “any new improvement in the NGO’s approach away from the slippages that run counter to the rules of commitment to the human rights’ defense in its global dimension.”