The Court of Barcelona has vetoed the police from reviewing the mobile phone of Oriol Junqueras’ lawyer, Andreu Van den Eynde, as claimed by the prosecution, for the preparation of an expert computer report on the espionage suffered by the lawyer through the program pegasus. The Seventh Section court considers that this analysis is not necessary, since “simple access” without consent to the data stored in the terminal “would constitute a crime.” And not only because of the possible improper use of the same, but because of the lawyer’s own refusal to extract the information from his phone.
Van den Eynde contested the computer expert of his mobile agreed by the judge investigator of the case, at the request of the prosecution, considering it “unnecessary”, since one has already been provided with the complaint, and for assuming a “re-victimization” by implying access to the information contained in the telephone and its delivered to some experts who are not identified in the judicial resolution that agreed to take this test. The Barcelona Court has now agreed with him. It should be borne in mind that this is a lawyer who can keep confidential information from his clients on his phone.
On the other hand, and in the same resolution, the Court of Barcelona endorses that a statement as investigated is taken from the legal representative of the company OSY Technologies SARL, integrated into the Israeli group NSO, manufacturer and distributor of Pegasus, as claimed by Van den Eyden. The court does not share the argument put forward by the examining magistrate and stresses that the interception of the communications of this lawyer, who resides in Spain and whose attack took place while he was in our country, is the responsibility of the Spanish courts. The lawyer suffered the attack on May 14, 2020, coinciding with the confinement decreed by the covid.
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The Court also considers it necessary for the judge to require documentation from NSO regarding clients who may have used Pegasus in Spain. “This will make it possible to clarify the facts denounced and determine their authorship,” the judges stated. However, in order to guarantee the right of defense, Prior to collecting this documentation, it is agreed to notify the Israeli company of its status as being investigated and its rights, among others, regarding the contribution or not of the requested documentary in case it is considered that it could incriminate it.
Regarding the request for documentation to the National Intelligence Center (CNI), the court accepts that it be carried out, although, to avoid a prospective investigation, the requirement must be limited to the provision of information related to the purchase of the Pegasus program and its possible use, but only in relation to Junqueras’ lawyer and the date on which who suffered the attack, on May 14, 2020. The magistrates, on the other hand, do not consider the testimony of the current director of the CNI necessary for now.