Spain Ends Pegasus Probe Again Amid Lack of Answers * Science and Technology Times

Spain’s High Court has once more closed its investigation into the alleged use of Pegasus spyware against senior government officials.
Judges said the inquiry cannot continue because Israel has not responded to requests for information.
The case has remained unresolved since 2022, when the surveillance scandal triggered a major political fallout.

Investigation Stalls Over Missing Information

Spain’s High Court announced that it has closed its probe into the use of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware against Spanish politicians. The inquiry began in 2022 after the government confirmed that members of the cabinet, including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, had been targeted. Officials never clarified whether the espionage originated from domestic or foreign actors, leaving key questions unanswered. Judge José Luis Calama said the lack of cooperation from Israeli authorities made it impossible to identify a suspect or advance the case.

NSO Group has consistently denied any wrongdoing, stating that Pegasus is licensed only to governments and is intended for crime prevention and national security purposes. The company says it cannot monitor how clients use the software once it is deployed. Israeli officials have also emphasized that their role is limited to approving export licences rather than overseeing operational use. Neither NSO nor the Israeli government provided immediate comment following the latest court decision.

A Repeated Closure After International Developments

Judge Calama had previously halted the investigation in 2023 for the same reason: a lack of response from Israel. The case was reopened in 2024 after France shared information from its own Pegasus inquiry, which examined alleged targeting of journalists, lawyers, public figures and government officials in 2021. Despite the new details, Spanish authorities were still unable to obtain the cooperation needed to move forward. The renewed closure leaves the espionage episode unresolved and continues to raise concerns about accountability in cross‑border surveillance cases.

The original revelations in 2022 triggered a political crisis in Spain, ultimately leading to the resignation of the country’s intelligence chief. Public debate has since focused on the difficulty of investigating sophisticated spyware tools that operate across jurisdictions. Legal experts note that national courts often struggle to obtain evidence from foreign governments in cyber‑espionage cases. The lack of clarity around who deployed Pegasus in Spain remains a significant gap in the country’s political and security narrative.