The NGO Reporters Without Borders found traces of Pegasus cyber-espionage software in the cell phones of Togolese journalists Loïc Lawson and Anani Sossou. Both are currently being prosecuted in Togo after a complaint from the Minister of Urban Planning. According to RSF, at least 23 intrusions were noted on the phone of Loïc Lawson, the publication director of the Torch of the Democratsduring the first half of 2021.
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The Togolese Minister of Urban Planning has filed a complaint against journalists Loïc Lawson and Anani Sossou for publishing information on the theft of a large sum of money from his home. Adedze Kodjo does not contest the theft, but the amount revealed by the journalists – without ever having given an amount of the damage suffered himself.
According to RSF, at least 23 intrusions by Pegasus software were noted on the phone of Loïc Lawson, the publication director of Torch of the Democrats, during the first half of 2021. Contacted by RFI, the Togolese authorities have not responded for the moment.
Pegasus is very sophisticated spyware which can fit into your smartphone without the user realizing it, and having access to all their data: messages, photos, contacts, personal information, etc. Pegasus was developed by the Israeli company NSO. On its site, the company claims to offer technologies to government agencies to enable them to fight crime and terrorism. But apparently, some governments use these powerful tools to spy on people in civil society, human rights defenders, opponents, journalists, lawyers, etc.
For Arnaud Froger, head of RSF’s investigation office, the two journalists have been in the crosshairs of the authorities for a long time: “ It was because we were interested in the circumstances of the detention of these two journalists that we realized that they had also been the subject of a cyber-espionage operation in 2021, time when Togo was a proven client of Pegasus. »
We can tell you that they had access to absolutely everything: to messages, you potentially have access to deleted messages, to all personal data, to the list of calls that were made and of all the people who are interacting with you, documents that you can store on certain applications on your mobile phone, etc. We contacted the Minister of Communication, who did not provide answers to the questions we asked and which remain valid. It is important that Togo can give its explanations. Is Togo still a customer of this spying software? Does he still use this type of operation concerning journalists? How many journalists were targeted? And then perhaps, more directly for the two who were the targets: Why were they spied on in this way?
RSF denounces spying on two journalists by Pegasus