Colombian prosecutors launch investigation into Pegasus spyware purchase

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s attorney general said on Thursday an investigation has been launched into the alleged purchase and illegal use of Pegasus spyware.

The decision came after President Gustavo Petro said on television that a unit in the country’s national police had purchased the software off the books using $11 million in cash.

Spyware technology, including Pegasus, has repeatedly been found to have been used to hack the phones of civil society organisations, the political opposition and journalists over the past decade.

Pegasus spyware, developed by the Israeli firm NSO, has been found on the phones of many people, including human rights defenders, around the world.

“The investigation aims to establish, among other things, whether negotiations between (police unit) DIPOL and NSO were completed, if the purchase took place, where the money came from and what the cash transfer from Colombia to Israel consisted of,” the statement said.

(Reporting by Oliver Griffin and Luis Jaime Acosta)