Marlaska follows in the footsteps of Bolaños and Robles and chooses to testify in writing before the judge of the 'Pegasus case'

MADRID, 26 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has indicated to the judge of the National Court in charge of the investigation of the 'Pegasus case' that he will declare in writing in court, thus opting for the prerogative that his fellow cabinet members Félix Bolaños also exercised and Margarita Robles.

As legal sources have confirmed to Europa Press, the minister has already responded to the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 4, José Luis Calama, who urged the minister to choose between testifying in person at the court itself, by videoconference or in writing taking advantage of the procedural privilege established in favor of the members of the Government.

It was at the beginning of September when the instructor addressed both Grande-Marlaska so that they could tell him how they wanted to testify in this case, in which he investigates the alleged espionage of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the ministers of Defense and Interior, with the Pegasus program through their mobile phones.

It was precisely that same week when Robles clarified to the judge that he would answer his questions in writing as Bolaños had already done, the first member of the Executive to answer the questions raised by the instructor. The judge, however, has not yet questioned the Defense Minister.

The AN judge began to investigate on April 26, pointing to possible crimes of discovery and disclosure of secrets after the complaint filed by the State Attorney for the infection of the mobile phones of the President of the Government and the Minister of Defense, a complaint that was later expanded upon also confirming the intrusion into Grande-Marlaska's phone.

Now the judge summons him to testify as a witness and the minister will choose to do so in writing like his government colleagues, according to Vozpópuli and confirmed by Europa Press.

In a first resolution, Calama gave details about the complaint filed by the State Attorney's Office, according to which, after the analysis of the mobile devices of the Chief Executive and the Minister of Defense carried out by the CERT on April 30, it was "known that they were the object of several infections by the Pegasus tool, mobile device spy 'software', between the months of May and June 2021".

The reports of the National Cryptologic Center on the cell phones of Sánchez and Robles highlighted that "the mobile device of the President of the Government analyzed was infected by Pegasus on two occasions (on May 19, 2021 and May 31, 2021)", while Robles would have been infected in June of that year.

In both cases, the reports stated that "information leakage occurred", but currently neither phone shows "known indicators of ongoing infection".

The first of the intrusions in Sánchez's cell phone would have occurred in the context of the massive entry of some 10,000 immigrants into Ceuta between May 17 and 18, 2021, which, precisely, led the Chief Executive to visit this second day the autonomous city, as well as Melilla, with the Minister of the Interior.