In just over two weeks, on March 20 and 21, nine MEPs of the commission of European Parliament who investigates the pegasus spy disembark in Madrid to receive explanations about the use of spyware in Spain, including Juan Ignacio Zoido (PP), iban garcia (PSOE), Diana Riba (CKD) and Jorge Buxade (vox). Together with them, the liberal Roza Thun, the popular Vladimir Bilcik, the socialist Hannes Heide, the popular jeroen lenaerswho chairs the commission of inquiry, as well as the rapporteur for the draft report, the Dutch liberal Sophie in t’Veld who has denounced pressures and attempts to discredit his work.
“I’m not scared & rdquor; but “I am beginning to be tired of all the attempts to discredit me, to question my intentions, provoke me, question the method and everything”, she denounced this Thursday, during the beginning of the debate on the amendments. In all, her draft report has received 1,281 amendments although a third part, as he explained, are his since his first draft exceeded the maximum limits allowed and he had to eliminate some parts. “I have presented that part in the form of amendments, in addition to some more because since November new elements have emerged,” he explained.
In t’Veld has also indicated that it will incorporate the results of the investigations carried out in Spain during the processing of the amendments, before voting on the final report -and on the text of recommendations which has also received 805 amendments – at the meeting scheduled for 26 April. “There are quite a few amendments that seek to remove various parts of the report. Specifically parties that criticize a country or a government. It seems very important to me that we think about principles and not about politics & rdquor ;, she recalled.
According to his report, the program was used to spy on members of the Government of Pedro Sánchez -as the defense minister Daisy Robles and indoor Fernando Grande-Marlaska– as well as Catalan separatists, including MEPs, according to research by the Canadian laboratory Cizitenlab. Spain will be the last destination for the members of the Pegasus commission who have already traveled to Israel in recent months, Poland, Greece, Cyprus and Hungary.
Although the program of meetings and visits is not closed, a interim draft with suggestions from the groups includes members of the Government of Pedro Sánchez -including the president, the minister of defense, foreign affairs, interior and the minister of the presidency-, members of the courts, the director of the data protection authority, of the National Intelligence Center, Hope Casteleiroand the former director of the CNI Peace Stephen as well as the president of the Generalitat, pere aragonesthe counselor Meritxell Serret, judges and journalists among others. Once the groups agree on the people they want to meet with, they will issue the invitations.
CS report
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The start of the debate on the amendments coincided with the presentation in the European Parliament of a report commissioned by Jordi Canas (Cs) and prepared by the Spanish academic Jose Javier Olivas in which he questions the conclusions of CitizenLab on the alleged espionage of 65 Catalan independentistas and their entourage. According to Olivas, the document from the Canadian laboratory, published on April 18 of last year, is not very transparent, violates most academic research conventions, and does not respect the protocols and principles of digital forensic investigation. “In no way can this ‘Catalangate’ report be used as an evidentiary basis for any type of commission or trial, because it would not pass any type of minimal peer review at an academic level & rdquor ;, he explained.
As announced by Ciudadanos, the group will distribute the report among the MEPs. “Both the first draft of the Commission’s conclusions and a part of the amendments presented assume the falsehoods of CitizenLab. Those who are going to work on the final text now have access to the information that they wanted to hide from Parliament& rdquor;, Cañas assessed a document that aspires to “counteract& rdquor; what he considers “secessionist propaganda & rdquor ;. “No one wants any government, neither the Spanish nor any other, to use spyware to follow citizens illegally, but what we are not going to allow is that anyone, using a questionable report, question the democracy of our country,” he said. said in statements to the press.