Amnesty alleges Morocco’s intelligence agency targeted journalists with surveillance
A report links 103 phone numbers entered into Pegasus in 2017 to identified people, while Morocco has repeatedly denied using spyware against its citizens.
Amnesty International alleges Morocco’s domestic intelligence agency, the DGST, used Pegasus spyware and other surveillance methods against journalists, activists and human rights defenders. Its report, Inside Morocco’s surveillance machine, says the agency used Pegasus against journalists and activists between 2017 and 2021.
Amnesty says it matched 103 Moroccan phone numbers entered into the Pegasus system from September to December 2017 to specific individuals. It identified 65 as civil society members, including 34 human rights defenders and 22 journalists and media workers. The matches do not establish that all those people were successfully surveilled or infected.
The report describes phone tapping, hidden recording devices and malware-infected phones, alongside Pegasus. Its account draws on a former DGST employee’s testimony, leaked documents and journalistic investigations, and was produced with 14 media organisations coordinated by Forbidden Stories.
Amnesty also says it found evidence of spyware delivered through state-owned Maroc Telecom and purchases of surveillance tools from companies in Israel, the European Union and the United States. Some claims about covert recording and compromised devices rely on the former employee’s testimony.
Morocco has repeatedly denied using spyware against its citizens. Amnesty says it contacted Moroccan authorities four weeks before publication and received no response; Al Jazeera said it could not immediately reach officials for comment.
