Spain's Supreme Court has endorsed the government's decision to declassify only three documents linked to the spying on Pere Aragonès's phone using the Pegasus program. The ruling dismisses the Catalan government's appeal, which sought more details to safeguard national security. The court warns that broader declassification would endanger the rule of law.
Spain's Supreme Court has dismissed the Catalan government's appeal against the Council of Ministers' agreement from January 16, 2023, which lifted secrecy on only three documents related to the spying on Pere Aragonès's phone between 2019 and 2020. Aragonès, then vice president of the Catalan government under Quim Torra and a leader of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), was targeted by the National Intelligence Center (CNI) using the Israeli spyware Pegasus.
The declassified documents include a July 2019 judicial order from Supreme Court judge Pablo Lucas authorizing the phone interception. The CNI argued the target was not Aragonès's institutional communications but another phone previously linked to the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR), groups formed after the illegal October 1 referendum. Additionally, two judicial resolutions were released: one from October 2019, amid protests over the Supreme Court's sentencing of independence leaders, and another from January 2020, during negotiations for Pedro Sánchez's investiture, extending the surveillance until April.
Barcelona judge Santiago García, handling Aragonès's complaint, had requested all documentation on the CNI's purchase and use of Pegasus, including those who acquired it. The government refused, citing risks to agent safety. The Supreme Court's ruling, penned by judge Pilar Teso, upholds this and highlights the dangers of further declassification.
“It is not difficult to understand that the requested declassification... would make evident the general means available to Spanish intelligence services, revealing their nature and scope... Thus, the consequences would not only reduce their effectiveness but create risk zones that place the State and its citizens in undeniable vulnerability,” states the ruling. The court adds that it would compromise foreign intelligence services, particularly Israeli ones, and endanger “the safety of all citizens and the very permanence of the rule of law.”