# Poland arrests former spy chief in Pegasus spyware probe

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/02/poland-arrests-former-spy-chief-in-pegasus-spyware-probe
Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Poland-arrests-former-spy-chief-in-Pegasus-spyware-probe?index=0x674eca6a089b547a97db5665b208d95b8a1fbd00e200abaa4765866ab1a85cab19e16849
Submitted by misha on 2024-12-03 UTC, 1 upvote, 1 comment

## Summary

Poland arrested Piotr Pogonowski, former head of the country's internal security agency, on Monday and forcibly took him to testify before parliament. The arrest is part of the current Tusk government's probe into alleged abuse of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware under the previous Law and Justice (PiS) administration, according to the Financial Times. Pogonowski reportedly ignored three summons to testify to the parliamentary committee. In 2021, Citizen Lab and Amnesty International concluded that Pegasus was used against three critics of the previous government, including a senator allegedly hacked dozens of times before the 2019 parliamentary elections.

## Article

In Brief

Posted:

10:40 AM PST · December 2, 2024

Image Credits:Omar Marques / Getty Images

For the last few years, the Polish government under Donald Tusk has been investigating the use — and alleged abuse — of Pegasus phone spyware by the previous government.

On Monday, Piotr Pogonowski, the former head of Poland’s internal security agency, was arrested and forcibly taken to testify before parliament, as part of the current government’s probe into the alleged spyware abuse carried out in recent years under the previous administration of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, per the Financial Times.

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Pogonowski reportedly ignored three summons to testify to the Polish parliamentary committee.

In 2021, Citizen Lab and Amnesty International concluded that NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware was used against three critics of the previous Polish government, including a senator who was allegedly hacked dozens of times ahead of the 2019 parliamentary elections. In 2023, the Polish senate concluded that the use of Pegasus in the country was unlawful.

Topics

Amnesty International, Citizen Lab, In Brief, NSO, NSO Group, Pegasus, poland, privacy, Security, Spyware, surveillance

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## Comments

**macbudkowski.eth**: It's true - our previous government used it to spy on other political parties and journalists, and there have been many proofs. 

What's funny is that Israel even said they won't sell and service it to Poland anymore because of this overreach, putting us in the same bucket as autocratic countries such as Saudi Arabia.