Israeli Spyware Pegasus Targeted Polish Citizens: PM Donald Tusk

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has condemned the use of Pegasus spyware by the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government as a "crime against the state," following revelations that the Israeli firm NSO Group retained technical access to sensitive data harvested from Polish citizens.

A parliamentary investigation and prosecutorial findings confirm that the spyware, acquired for roughly $15 million (60 million PLN), was used to monitor thousands of individuals, including opposition figures, independent prosecutors, and Tusk’s own family, while data was transmitted through servers outside Poland’s control.

Experts determined that Poland’s Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) lacked full administrative control, missing passwords for some accounts and leaving the infection module under NSO’s exclusive control.

The software was deployed in at least 578 cases between 2017 and 2022, with documented targets including prominent political critics and even citizens of other EU nations like France and Germany.

The system was purchased using funds from a Justice Fund intended for crime victims, operated without required IT security accreditation, and judges authorizing its use were not informed of its full capabilities.

Judges who signed off on surveillance warrants did not fully understand the technical scope of Pegasus. Unlike standard wiretaps, Pegasus granted complete retroactive and real-time remote extraction of phone contents.

The current government has filed 11 criminal complaints against former officials, including former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro and former security chiefs, who deny wrongdoing and argue the tool was essential for national security.

Tusk said it is "beyond any doubt" that NSO Group cooperates with Israeli intelligence, raising serious concerns about digital sovereignty and foreign oversight of Polish state secrets.

In the video address posted on X, Tusk said that the revelations represent “one of the biggest scandals in the history of Poland after the fall of communism.”

Tusk pointed out that while the software contract restricted targeting phone numbers from Russia, Belarus, and North Korea, Polish agencies instead directed the tool at Polish citizens, political opposition figures, journalists, and even officials in partner EU nations such as France and Germany.

"Imagine that the people responsible for justice and national security [in Poland] handed over thousands, tens of thousands, of sensitive details about Polish citizens to a foreign country, Israel, without having any control over it," Tusk said.

When Tusk’s pro-EU coalition won power in late 2023, his administration opened formal criminal investigations and established a special parliamentary commission of inquiry to examine operational abuse between 2015 and 2023.

The latest prosecutor findings confirm that the system was not only used domestic-politically, but was operated in a way that exposed sensitive national security information to foreign commercial and intelligence entities.