Moroccan journalists recount years of surveillance amid new Amnesty claim
Amnesty International released a report alleging that Morocco’s intelligence agency used Pegasus spyware and a wider surveillance apparatus to monitor and intimidate journalists, activists and lawyers between 2017 and 2021. The report, based on a whistleblower account from a former DGST employee dubbed 'Safir', details digital intrusions, physical tailing and efforts to co-opt service providers to infect devices.
Why It Matters
If accurate, the findings document systematic state surveillance of civil society actors, including journalists, which has implications for press freedom, rule of law and privacy in Morocco. The claims revive prior disputes after Moroccan authorities previously challenged Amnesty to supply material proof.
Key Facts
- Report title: We Start With the Verdict: Inside Morocco’s Surveillance Machine (Amnesty International)
- Whistleblower: Pseudonym 'Safir', described as a former employee of Morocco's General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DGST)
- Primary spyware named: Pegasus (developed by NSO Group)
- Cases detailed: Omar Radi, Fouad Abdelmoumni, Abdessadak El Bouchattaoui, Hicham Mansouri
- Radi's surveillance period: 2018 to 2020
Amnesty International’s new report assembles testimony, technical analysis and interviews to allege that Morocco’s DGST used Pegasus spyware and an extensive surveillance network against journalists, activists and lawyers between 2017 and 2021. The report, coordinated with Forbidden Stories and 14 media organisations, relies in part on a whistleblower who gave an insider account of how operations were conducted and on forensic examinations of phones such as that of journalist Omar Radi.
Radi, now living in Germany, told Al Jazeera he noticed signs consistent with phone compromise — rapid battery drain, overheating and network slowdowns — and later learned Amnesty’s Security Lab had identified him as a Pegasus target. Amnesty says its analysis of targeting records matched 103 Moroccan phone numbers between September and December 2017; of those, 65 were identifiable as members of civil society, including 34 human rights defenders, 22 journalists and media workers, five lawyers and four academics.
The report describes a blended approach of digital intrusion and in-person espionage. Safir told investigators that targets were secretly recorded in detention, workplaces, vehicles and private residences, that phone shops were used to sell devices pre-infected with spyware, and that neighbours and parking attendants were recruited for daily monitoring. Amnesty also recounts episodes it describes as cleanup operations intended to leave no trace, and cites specific instances such as covert filming of activist Fouad Abdelmoumni in 2021.
Morocco has rejected previous allegations that it used Pegasus to target critics and challenged Amnesty to provide material evidence in 2020 and 2022. Amnesty says it invited Moroccan authorities to respond four weeks before publishing the new report but received no reply; Al Jazeera and Moroccan officials had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication. Some Moroccan outlets questioned the report’s methodology, arguing that a phone number appearing in Pegasus records does not by itself prove an infection or identify who ordered targeting. The disclosures add to long-running tensions over press freedom and state surveillance in Morocco.
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