New confirmation of espionage against the independence movement. The Mossos d’Esquadra corroborated the infiltration through the Pegasus program, sold only to governments, in the telephone number of the former presidents of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) Jordi Sànchez and Elisenda Paluzie, as well as in that of the former member of the secretariat of the Sònia Urpí entity. All attacks coincide with moments of political importance.
This is how the three former sovereignist leaders explained it after appearing as plaintiffs before the magistrate of the 23rd investigating court in Barcelona this Tuesday. In Sànchez’s case, the Mossos confirmed that his cell phone was infected by Pegasus on 19 occasions between 2015 and 2020. The majority of the attacks took place between 2015 and 2017, when he led the ANC before joining in prison immediately. The last attack dates back to July 2020, when he was enjoying one of his first prison permits.
The espionage coincides with the central leaders of the PP and PSOE. The total interception of Paluzie’s communications took place on four occasions. In August and October 2019, coinciding with the preparation and judgment of the trial, and in May and August 2020, during the entity’s internal electoral campaign.
Paluzie was spied on sending a text message containing fake news about the ANC elections, a technique the Mossos say was also used to attack other independence supporters and which betrays the National Intelligence Center (CNI). In Urpí’s case, there were two attacks, in June 2020, when she was chosen as a member of the entity’s secretariat.
Sànchez and Paluzie are two of the names that former CNI director Paz Esteban admitted to having spied on, with the approval of the Supreme Court, during her appearance in Congress on the Pegasus scandal in 2022. The spy chief did not admitted that 18 names of people spied on by the CNI compared to the 65 claimed by the independence movement.
The CNI’s admission of espionage has until now been the obstacle that the Barcelona investigating judges have placed in order to advance the investigations. If Esteban recognized the name, the investigation is moving forward. Otherwise, we remain in an impasse. This is the case of the complaint filed by former President Aragonès, which is the only one among the dozen files opened in Barcelona for which Esteban remains indicted for having admitted his espionage to Congress.
The Mossos report, which officially corroborates the spying of Sànchez and Paluzie, was the necessary step that the magistrate and the plaintiffs were waiting for before deciding on the next steps to take. Although in statements to the press they did not want to reveal the next movements, the plaintiffs will probably request in the coming days the declaration as accused of Esteban or his predecessor until 2020, Félix Sanz Roldán.
The former leaders of the ANC want the judicial investigation to determine whether they were spied on by the CNI or also by the National Police or the Civil Guard. “Our political freedoms and our privacy have been violated. “How is it possible that there is political espionage in the 21st century within the EU?” Sànchez stressed in statements to the press.
“We are happy because the investigation is starting, but two and a half years have passed since our complaint to the court,” recalled Paluzie, who warned of the “deterrent effect” that espionage has on the activism and political activity. “We were spied on because we belonged to the ANC,” Urpí insisted. “People were attacked because they were separatists, it’s pure political repression,” concluded lawyer and member of the ANC secretariat, Josep Cruanyes.
