Poland Rejects Allegations It Spied on Opposition Before Vote

(Bloomberg) -- Poland’s government rejected fresh allegations that it illegally hacked the mobile phone of a senior opposition lawmaker during the 2019 parliamentary election campaign, the latest spying scandal hitting the country’s nationalist leaders.

The Associated Press reported that Senator Krzysztof Brejza’s mobile phone was hacked with sophisticated spyware when he was running the main opposition party’s campaign, citing internet watchdog Citizen Lab. Earlier in the week, a lawyer who represented top opposition officials and a state prosecutor accused the government of stealing data form their mobile devises.

“Suggestions that the Polish security services are using operational methods for political battles are not true,” security services spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn told Bloomberg on Friday. Asked specifically about Brejza, Zaryn said that Polish law prohibits him from revealing the names of people under surveillance.

Poland’s political ally, Hungary, is also among governments accused of deploying NSO Group Ltd.’s controversial Pegasus spyware to target critics. 

Brejza’s phone was hacked 31 times during 2019, when he was responsible for the Civic Platform party’s election campaign, according to Citizen Lab. The Senator told private broadcaster TVN24 that stolen text messages from his phone were doctored and used by public television, which is run by a former ruling-party lawmaker.

The government, which has been criticized by the U.S. and the European Union for democratic backsliding, narrowly won re-election two years ago, gaining a four-seat majority in the lower house of parliament. Citizen Lab senior researcher John-Scott Railton said the hacking scandal could grow.

“If we’ve found these cases so quickly, imagine what else may be out there,” he told Bloomberg. “This feels like the tip of the iceberg to me.”

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