Poland's Watergate: Kaczynski has admitted that the authorities have Pegasus software

Jaroslav Kaczynski, Chairman of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS ) and de facto leader of the country, confirmed that the government has the Pegasus hacking software system.

However, he denies that it was used against opposition politicians in the parliamentary campaign. elections in 2019, Politico.eu reports.

“It would be bad if the Polish services did not have this type of instrument,” Kaczynski said in an interview with the right-wing weekly Sieci.

This is the first time a high-level ruling party politician has confirmed that the government owns the system.

Last month, Kaczynski denied knowing anything about the malware.

“After a series of lies by politicians PiS has finally made it possible to extract the truth from Kaczynski “, wrote on Twitter Krzysztof Breiza, who led the campaign of the opposition Civic Platform in 2019

According to Citizen Lab – A Canadian-based cybersecurity watchdog, Pegasus has been used against Polish journalists, lawyers and opposition politicians. Kaczynski denies the allegations, saying “opposition stories about using Pegasus for political purposes are complete nonsense.” “Neither Pegasus, nor any services, nor any secret information received played a role in the 2019 election campaign. they lost because they lost, they should not look for such excuses today “, he commented in the interview.

Kaczynski does not completely rule out that Breza’s phone was not hacked. He says the opposition senator is linked to “suspicious crimes”. This is something Breza denies and threatens to prosecute anyone who comes up with such allegations.

Breiza says his phone was hacked 33 times before the 2019 elections. He said text messages were downloaded from his phone and used by state television, which is close associated with the ruling party to attack him.

The breakthrough was confirmed on Friday by Amnesty International. “These findings are shocking, but not surprising. They raise serious concerns not only for politicians but also for Polish civil society in general, especially in the context of persistent and serious concerns about human rights and the rule of law, “said Anna Blaszczak, Amnesty’s Polish director, in a statement.

Roman Giertich, an opposition lawyer, and Eva Vjosek, a prosecutor who has repeatedly clashed with Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro, also say their phones are were hacked by Pegasus.

Ziobro insists that any use of Pegasus is “in accordance with the law”.

Opposition calls for parliamentary investigation into software scandal, already identified as Poland’s Watergate.

Pegasus was developed by the Israeli company NSO Group and is sold mainly to state-owned companies. organizations. The system could break into phones, and in theory should be used to fight crime and terrorism.

Controversy over the use of the software erupted last summer when an investigation called Pegasus Project, found that it has been used in more than 50 countries against members of civil society, politicians, lawyers, journalists and others.