The CNI recognizes that it spied on Carles Riera and David Fernàndez with Pegasus
The Council of Ministers declassifies the information and allows the director of the agency to declare judicially for this case
BarcelonaThe CNI spied on Carles Riera and David Fernàndez for alleged "activities contrary to national security". The agency had the phones of the two former CUP deputies infected with Pegasus for almost two years and six months, respectively, and had the authorization of the Supreme Court.
This is stated in the documentation declassified by the Council of Ministers at the request of investigating court 32 of Barcelona, with the endorsement of the Barcelona Court of Appeal, following the lawsuit filed by Riera, Fernàndez and the also former deputy Carles Botran. In the latter case, the Spanish secret services deny having spied on him, even though the Mossos concluded that he had also been a victim of Pegasus.
"Mr. Carles Riera Albert and Mr. David Fernàndez Ramos were effectively the subject of legal communications interception measures", establishes the Ministry of Defence in a letter dated June 29, to which ARA has had access. And it authorizes the lifting of the espionage secrecy by the CNI for the use of the mobile phones of the two CUP leaders "in activities contrary to national security", which are not specified.
What the document does detail is that Riera's phone was intercepted between June 2020 and May 2022, a period during which he was a deputy and third secretary of the Parliament of Catalonia, and that Fernàndez's espionage lasted between December 2019 and June 2020, a period that does not coincide with his time as a parliamentarian but which falls within the months following the protests against the sentence of the Procés.
Regarding Botran's case, however, the document assures that the CNI "has not executed, on any date, any activity that could be the origin of the investigation proceedings" about which the judge requested information. "There has been no such CNI activity", it is emphasized regarding the alleged espionage.
Beyond declassifying the information, the Council of Ministers also authorizes the director of the CNI, Esperanza Casteleiro, to testify judicially in this case. "The witness testimony [...] could be made without violating the duty of secrecy incumbent upon her", it is argued.
The admission of part of the espionage against former anti-capitalist deputies comes four months after the court ordered a request to be sent to the Council of Ministers for the declassification of the corresponding information from the CNI, thus unblocking a petition pending since 2022.
