Saudi satirist hacked with Pegasus spyware wins damages in court battle

The London High Court awarded a Saudi satirist and quality rights activistic much than £3 cardinal ($4.1 cardinal USD) successful damages connected Monday aft uncovering “compelling evidence” that his telephone had been hacked with government-grade spyware.

Ghanem Al-Masarir, a London-based comic whose fashionable YouTube transmission featured videos of him criticizing Saudi Arabia, portion earning him millions of viewers, sued the Saudi authorities successful 2019 aft claiming his telephone was targeted a twelvemonth earlier with Pegasus, a mobile spyware sold by NSO Group exclusively to governments.

Al-Masari was besides physically assaulted successful London successful 2018, astir the clip his telephone was targeted. He accused agents moving for the de facto person of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, of staging the attack. Real-world attacks are often utilized successful conjunction with integer surveillance tools similar Pegasus, researchers person found.

The comic and activistic said the attacks connected his telephone and the carnal battle caused heavy depression, ending his YouTube career.

Saudi Arabia rebuffed Al-Masarir’s ineligible challenge, saying it had state immunity from prosecution, a assertion it had successfully argued successful an earlier lawsuit successful which the Saudi person was accused of orchestrating the execution of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi successful a Saudi consulate successful Turkey.

But the High Court rejected Saudi’s assertion of immunity successful Al-Masarir’s ineligible case, prompting the Kingdom to instrumentality nary portion successful the litigation going forward, according to Reuters, which first reported the tribunal ruling.

“There is simply a compelling ground for concluding that [al-Masarir’s] iPhones were hacked by Pegasus spyware which resulted successful the exfiltration of information from those mobile phones,” wrote Justice Pushpinder Saini in his ruling.

The justice said that the hacking was “directed oregon authorised” by the Saudi authorities oregon its agents. Justice Saini besides recovered that the Saudi authorities was astir apt liable for Al-Masarir’s assault.

It’s not wide if Saudi Arabia volition wage Al-Masarir, oregon if the authorities plans to appeal.

A spokesperson for NSO Group, which makes and sells entree to the Pegasus spyware, did not instantly respond to TechCrunch’s petition for comment. Neither did a spokesperson for the Saudi Embassy successful Washington D.C.