On 6 October 2026, Al Jazeera and others tell the story:
Omar Radi is a journalist and human rights defender from Morocco. His case is among four detailed in a new Amnesty International report, We Start With the Verdict: Inside Morocco’s Surveillance Machine, produced with 14 media organisations and coordinated by the international network of journalists Forbidden Stories.
The other three are Fouad Abdelmoumni, a veteran activist; Abdessadak El Bouchattaoui, a human rights lawyer; and Hicham Mansouri, a journalist in exile who had been imprisoned in 2015 on charges of adultery and sexual exploitation, which Amnesty describes as trumped-up.
Authorities in Morocco operate an expansive and vast surveillance apparatus that combines digital and analogue tools to track, monitor and ultimately silence journalists, activists and other critical voices, Amnesty International said in a new report.
We start with the verdict: Inside Morocco’s surveillance machine reveals how Moroccan authorities use unlawful surveillance to target human rights defenders, journalists and other dissenting voices and subject them to criminal prosecutions, judicial harassment and other forms of repression in violation of their rights to privacy, liberty, and freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.
“Morocco has wholly embraced techno-authoritarian practices, acquiring a wide range of surveillance technologies to establish and enable a repressive system specifically designed to instill fear among human rights activists and journalists, silence their voices and obstruct their work inside and outside Morocco,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
Morocco has repeatedly denied using spyware to spy on its citizens. However, new evidence obtained by Amnesty International including whistleblower testimony, leaked surveillance data, government spyware targeting records and material from companies selling surveillance tools proves the opposite. Drawing on this evidence, the organization documents not only the range of tools and techniques used to target dissent, but the web of international vendors providing them.
“Our report provides the most detailed picture to date of the tools deployed by the Moroccan authorities, such as high-tech spyware, audio bugging systems and trackers to spy on journalists, human rights defenders and other individuals. Morocco’s surveillance tools are purchased from corporate actors based in Israel, the EU and the United States of America, and including NSO Group, the now defunct Italian spyware company Hacking Team, now known as Memento Labs, and the British-German network of companies Gamma Group and FinFisher. Agnès Callamard, Amnesty Internation’s Secretary General
“This is another demonstration of a global economy of techno-oppression, enabled by companies and States failing to uphold their obligations under international law.
“This repressive ecosystem makes it difficult, and dangerous for people in Morocco to exercise their rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly. Even after they have been released from prison, they continue to live under the shadow of surveillance and are subject to smear campaigns with private details that can only be obtained through surveillance. Moroccan authorities must immediately end the unlawful surveillance of human rights defenders and journalists,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
Forensic evidence unearthed by Amnesty International demonstrates how human rights defenders were targeted using multiple infection methods, including physical infection of devices; 1-click attacks, which typically rely on the victim clicking on a malicious link; zero-click attacks, which can infect a target without them having to click a link, or take any action; and network injection attacks, delivered via the state-owned Maroc Telecom network.
Amnesty International had previously published the first ever forensic evidence confirming Pegasus spyware infections of the mobile phones of human rights defenders and activists in Morocco.
This new report now identifies the Direction Générale de la Surveillance du Territoire (DGST), as the entity responsible for the deployment of Pegasus spyware in Morocco, and the extensively documented abuses of Pegasus against activists and journalists between 2017 and 2021 despite previous denials by Moroccan authorities.
A whistleblower, known by the pseudonym Safir, is a former DGST employee. In multiple interviews conducted over several years, he described the inner operations of the DGST and detailed the wide range of surveillance tools and techniques used by the agency. Amnesty International corroborated key aspects of Safir’s testimony with independent sources, technical evidence and interviews with human rights defenders. …….
see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2020/05/05/nso-versus-whatsapp-continues-in-court/
