Colombian prosecutors launch investigation into purchase of Pegasus spyware

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s attorney general said in a statement on Thursday he had opened an investigation into the alleged purchase and illegal use of Pegasus spyware.

The decision came after President Gustavo Petro appeared on television to say that the national police unit had purchased the software for $11 million in cash.

Over the past decade, spyware technology, including Pegasus, has been repeatedly found to be used to hack the phones of civil society representatives, the political opposition, and journalists.

In particular, the Pegasus spyware – created by Israeli company NSO – has been detected on the phones of numerous people around the world, including human rights activists.

“The investigation aims to determine, among other things, whether negotiations between (police unit) DIPOL and NSO were finalized, and if a purchase was made, where the money came from and what the transfer of cash from Colombia to Israel was,” the statement reads.

(Reporting by Oliver Griffin and Luis Jaime Acosta)