Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jarosław Kaczyński reiterated that nothing illegal or unjustified occurred involving the use of the Israeli Pegasus spyware, with the affair being compared by some commentators to the U.S. Watergate scandal that brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon.
“All special services must possess measures which are adequate to the modern level of technology. And the modern level of technology is accessible to many people, including criminals,” Kaczyński told the Polish Press Agency.
He stated that Polish intelligence service’s operational work was completely legal because a procedure was initiated following a justified motion put forward by the intelligence services, which was later directed to the prosecutor’s office and the final decision was made by a court.
The spyware, which has made headlines across the world for its ability to access nearly any smartphone and remotely download all its content, has been used to access the phones of politicians, journalists, and human rights activists. Poland is reportedly one of many countries to have access to the technology, but the government denies that it was used for any illegal purpose or to spy on the opposition.
Kaczyński added that the activity of intelligence services did not depend on political reasons.
“Stories about some sort of activity which was meant to be connected with the elections are simply the creation of a sick imagination,” Kaczyński said in reference to the accusations made by opposition MP Krzysztof Brejza.
Kaczyński also spoke about the PiS MPs who had allegedly been surveilled. He admitted that he did not know whether that was the case and that the recent interview given by MP Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski was “a surprise” to him.
PiS’s leader also declared that the establishment of a parliamentary investigation commission, as MP Paweł Kukiz demanded, would be “a device in service to black propaganda and an attack against PiS.”
“We do not have reasons to be afraid. The opposition wants to reach that part of society which has accepted the black propaganda that has been operating for years, although nothing wrong has been happening,” he said.
Kaczyński warned that “Kukiz was not considering the direction in which this would go, irrespective of his impartiality.”
“I have not the slightest doubts that if there had been abuses of this kind, then they did not take place during our times,” he stressed.
