New Delhi: Israel’s attorney general had delayed the processing of complaints by three Hungarian citizens who were victims of Pegasus spyware to open a criminal investigation against the NSO Group, Israel’s prosecution ombudsman has observed.The Pegasus spyware, Israeli firm NSO Group’s flagship product, enabled infected mobile phones to be accessed for any files. The phone’s camera and microphone could also be switched on remotely.The NSO Group does not reveal its client list, but claims that its spyware is only sold to governments for anti-crime and anti-terror purposes.In June 2021, the Pegasus Project, a consortium of news outlets including The Wire, had revealed that forensic analysis of mobile devices had shown that several journalists in Hungary had been compromised with Israeli spyware.The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union had launched legal action in Israel in January 2022 on behalf of victims who had been targeted through the spyware.Through an Israeli lawyer Eitay Mack, HCLU had filed a petition before Israel’s attorney general to open a criminal case against the NSO Group and officials in the ministries of defence and foreign affairs who had approved the sale to the Viktor Orbán government.“They should have known from the beginning the deteriorating situation in Hungary, and that targeting the press is a main activity of the Orbán regime,” Mack told The Guardian last year.Nearly one and half years later, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on June 7 that the the Israeli ombudsman for complaints against the prosecution, Judge Menachem Finkelstein, has upheld a complaint against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara for alleged delays in opening a criminal investigation against the NSO Group.As per the news report, Judge Finkelstein directed the State Attorney’s Office, which is currently discussing the request, to make an effort to complete its handling of the case as soon as possible. He also underlined that public authorities should promptly respond to citizen appeals and handle them within a reasonable timeframe.Haaretz stated that the attorney general’s office had first claimed that the complaint had not been processed due to an “office malfunction”. “However, following an investigation by the ombudsman, it was determined that the AG’s office’s conduct had caused a significant delay in transferring the request to the appropriate authorities,” wrote the Israeli newspaper.
