Further legal challenge launched by human rights activist against authoritarian state using sinister Pegasus spyware.
On Tuesday 22 November 2022, a further human rights activist in the UK represented by Bindmans LLP and Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) has taken the first step in starting legal action arising from the hacking of his phones by a foreign state using the spyware known as “Pegasus”. He now joins the group who began their action earlier this year.
The claimant is Dr Azzam Tamimi, a British-Jordanian journalist, academic, and political activist of Palestinian heritage. He has lectured at many prominent universities and published several books on Middle Eastern and Islamic politics.
He is the founder, chairman and editor-in-chief of a satellite TV channel, Al-Hiwar, which advocates for freedom and human rights in Middle Eastern countries. Azzam was also a long-standing friend of Jamal Khashoggi, the murdered Saudi journalist, who appeared as a guest on the Claimant’s show on the Al-Hiwar channel (Hiwar London, or the“London Discussion”) just one month before the first verified example of the Claimant’s phone being hacked.
It is alleged that he was targeted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia using Pegasus spyware on several occasions between 2018 and 2021.
Dr Tamimi, said:
“I was hacked with Pegasus spyware while I was in touch with Mr Khashoggi, most likely with a view to silencing a brave and widely respected journalist. This deliberate and evil act shows that the regime will stop at nothing to crush free speech and the human rights of those who criticise it. We will bring these matters into the light and believe that justice will prevail in the end.”
Siobhan Allen, senior lawyer with GLAN and consultant solicitor at Bindmans LLP, said:
“Powerful spyware is being silently deployed across borders by authoritarian states targeting human rights defenders who expect to be able to conduct their important work safely in the UK. The English courts need to recognise that this should not have happened and cannot be allowed to continue with impunity.”
Government and Security Services. Not only should the Courts deal with this but the Government should hold a Public Inquiry to establish exactly how this could have been allowed to happen”.
The claimant joins three other claimants also represented by Bindmans who have already sent pre-action letters to NSO, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE in February 2022. All four claims are the result of a painstaking investigation which Bindmans and GLAN have undertaken since 2021.
Forensics imaging and analysis is being carried out by technology experts at Reckon Digital (London) and by Dr. Bill Marczak of Citizen Lab and UC Berkeley (California).
Pre-litigation funding was provided by crowdfunding and the Digital Freedom Fund.
Pegasus spyware is manufactured and sold by the Israeli technology company NSO Group Technologies Ltd and has been sold under Israeli export licences to a number of foreign governments.
The use of Pegasus spyware by foreign governments to target human rights defenders and political opponents has been widely documented in international media including The Guardian, The Washington Post, and the New Yorker.
The group of claimants are represented by Monika Sobiecki, Tamsin Allen, Tayab Ali, and
Bartosz Kruk of Bindmans LLP, together with Siobhán Allen and Dearbhla Minogue of GLAN.
Richard Hermer QC, Ben Silverstone and Darryl Hutcheon of Matrix Chambers are instructed as Counsel.
“Orange” of Reckon Digital and Bill Marczak (Senior Research Fellow at Citizen Lab) are
providing digital imaging and forensics support.
Bindmans is seeking to crowdfund the case using CrowdJustice, a community fundraising
platform. To find out more about the case, or to support the claimants to this challenge, visit
the CrowdJustice fundraising page here.
For more details and to subscribe for email updates on this case, please visit GLAN’s case page here.
