Surveillance with the use of Pegasus spyware in 2017-2022 targeted 578 persons - according to information the Prosecutor General's office has sent to the parliament. The highest number of people spied on with Pegasus was recorded in 2021, when 162 persons were under surveillance.
Prosecutor General and Justice Minister Adam Bodnar announced in recent days that a report regarding the use of operational surveillance would soon be sent over to the speakers of both parliament chambers. "And when it does, the overall number of Pegasus use in Poland will be revealed," he said.
The information on the statistics of operational surveillance use in 2023, prepared by Bodnar, has now been published at the Senate website.
"The information has been supplemented with the number of people who were under operational surveillance with the use of Pegasus software between 2017-2022," Prosecutor General's spokesperson Anna Adamiak told PAP agency on Tuesday (April 16).
In the last paragraph of the document, Adam Bodnar said that, between 2017-2022, three services had carried out operational surveillance of end devices on a total of 578 people: 6 in 2017, 100 in 2018, 140 in 2019, 161 in 2020, 162 in 2021, and 9 in 2022.
Asked about the document, the spokesperson for the chief prosecutor explained that the phrase "operational surveillance of an end device" could be colloquially understood as the use of Pegasus spyware.
Earlier that day, Poland's Minister Coordinator of Special Services Tomasz Siemoniak likewise told TVN24 that there had been over 500 persons spied on with the use of Pegasus software between 2017-2021.
Siemoniak added that among those more than 500 spyware uses there was "absolutely too many" of unjustified cases.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, TVN24. PAP
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: Paweł Supernak/PAP