El Aaiun (Occupied Territories), 12 March 2022 (SPS) - The Sahrawi Body against the Moroccan Occupation (ISACOM) called on the international community to impose a ban on the export and sale of surveillance software to Morocco, because of its repression of fundamental freedoms in occupied Western Sahara.
It came in a statement issued by ISACOM on Friday, in the wake of revelations about the Moroccan regime’s use of the Zionist spyware "Pegasus" to spy on the Sahrawi human rights activist, Aminatou Haidar, calling for "an immediate ban on the export, the sale, transfer and use of surveillance technology software to Morocco, which does not hesitate to use them for the repression of freedoms and hinder the exercise of the activities of human rights defenders in occupied Western Sahara.
The statement also praised the "professional" and " thorough" technical work done by Amnesty International to denounce the exposure of human rights defenders to espionage, indicating that the Moroccan occupying state uses Pegasus "as a weapon to attack Sahrawi activists, monitor their privacy and that of their family members to exert pressure on them and launch campaigns against them, or even attack their lives".
In the same document, the Sahrawi organization denounced the use of spyware "Pegasus", which "facilitates the task of expansionist countries, like the Moroccan regime, to commit human rights violations both in the occupied Sahrawi territories against Sahrawi activists, and in Morocco against Moroccan activists.
After the outbreak of the scandal of the involvement of Morocco in mid-2021 in the spying on many people, journalists, human rights activists and political figures via the software "Pegasus", ISACOM called for the opening of an international investigation and called to prosecute those responsible.
The Sahrawi Forum had also called on the United Nations and its human rights bodies to "protect Sahrawi human rights defenders against the policy of reprisals of the occupying state that endangers their lives and those of their families.
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