Once again, UAE accused of spying

The UAE has yet again been under fire for spying on United Nations (UN) officials and human rights activists at home and abroad.

Amnesty International and the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto have revealed that in August 2019, a UN-backed investigator, Kamel Jendoubi, was targeted by spyware designed by the Israeli spyware company, NSO Group. 

At the time, Jendoubi was probing potential war crimes committed by the Saudi-UAE led coalition in Yemen. As reported by the Guardian, he was targeted just weeks before he and his panel of experts released a damning report concluding that the coalition had committed “serious violations of international humanitarian law” that could lead to “criminal responsibility for war crimes”.

Jendoubi’s telephone number was found to be stored in a database which also contained private information on other potential surveillance targets identified by NSO’s government clients to be monitored as part of the firm’s infamous Pegasus Project. The database was leaked earlier this year and formed the basis of an investigation by Amnesty International, Forbidden Stories and a group of international media organisations, including the Guardian. 

Jendoubi told the Pegasus Project that the targeting of his phone marked the actions of a “rogue state”. 

“There are no other words. As international investigators, we are supposed to be at least protected. But I am not at all surprised. I’ve been apprehensive about this since 2019,” he said.

“We knew that we [the panel] could be potentially targeted since the publication of our 2018 report. That report had created a shock in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. They did not expect such findings.”

In response to the allegations, an NSO spokesperson told the Guardian, “Based on the details you have provided us, we can confirm that Kamel Jendoubi was not targeted by any of our current customers.” Saudi Arabia, previously a long-term client of NSO, was dropped by the firm and accused of abusing its surveillance technologies after the kingdom’s involvement in the state-sactioned murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.