The Minister of Defense defends the partial declassification of documents on espionage to President Aragonès
The Spanish government has declassified only what is necessary about spying on the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, with the Pegasus program. This is what the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has stated in the Defense Commission, where she has received criticism from the Republican Left, dissatisfied with the declassified material because “it has not met expectations”. The deputy of ERC Francesc-Marc Álvaro has reproached the minister that the executive of Sánchez “created expectations” about the declassification of these documents which, according to him, have not been fulfilled.
The “partial” declassification of the documents was made ten days ago, following the request of the judge who is handling the case regarding the use of Pegasus against Aragonès and 17 other pro-independence leaders. The declassification occurs two months after the imputation of the then director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), Paz Esteban, who testifies on Friday as part of the investigation. In the appearance, Robles recalled that he cannot speak about the matter, but he did want to make it clear that the Spanish government has declassified “what is necessary, bluntly” so that the former director of the CNI can answer the questions put to her. He also indicated that, regarding the use of Pegasus, “everything was done with judicial authorization.”
Esquerra and Bildu accuse the Spanish government of obstructing judicial work and call for more transparency
Álvaro believes that Pedro Sánchez’s executive “should facilitate” that the case is clarified and has warned the minister that, if he has not done so, Esquerra “understands that they are obstructing” the judicial work. Likewise, he emphasized that it is “a question of democratic quality” because “it is very rare that espionage mechanisms are used against political adversaries”. He also questioned him about the reason why the Spanish State has not exploited the diplomatic channel with Israel, as France did, to clarify what refers to Pegasus. The Republicans have received the support of Bildu in their complaint and Bildu deputy Jon Iñarritu, has expressed himself in the same line and has assured that the Spanish government “has not provided the judge with all the information requested”.
The CUP insists on the declassification of documents on espionage to its deputies
On the other hand, the CUP has once again submitted a letter to the Court of Inquiry 32 in Barcelona to request the declassification of CNI documents on espionage with the Pegasus software to the CUP deputy in Parliament, Carles Riera; and former deputies Albert Botran and David Fernàndez. The anti-capitalists emphasize in a statement that they already submitted a brief asking for declassification in April 2022 and that the judge left it unresolved, and then they also presented another brief before the Provincial Court and the Sixth Section, because ruled on this request and it “resolved in favor” of the cupaires.