In February 2021, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited Sovereign Systems to respond to allegations of selling Israeli surveillance technology to the Bangladeshi army. Their response is includes the following and the full document is attached:

Our clients’ position is that these allegations are false and baseless, and constitute serious

libel against our clients, which has disparaged and injured them in their business and trade

reputation, as well as harmed their credit and integrity.

1. Our clients have written to Al Jazeera to demand that they withdraw the defamatory

allegations and apologise to our clients, among other relief claimed. If Al Jazeera fails to comply, our

clients will not hesitate to take all necessary steps to protect their rights.

For your information, our instructions on the relevant facts are as follows:

(a) SSPL does not have any contract with the Government of Bangladesh;

(b) The contract mentioned by Al Jazeera does not refer to SSPL, because it does not involve

SSPL. The contract was affixed with the company stamp of Sovereign Technologies Limited

(“STL”), a company incorporated in Hong Kong;

(c) The contract between STL and the Government of Bangladesh was the result of a public

tender process. STL submitted a bid for a public tender by the Government of Bangladesh for

the provision of cellular surveillance systems and was awarded a contract in accordance with

proper procurement procedures;

(d) To the best of our clients’ knowledge, the contract between STL and the Government of

Bangladesh was prepared by the Directorate General Defence Purchase of Bangladesh;

(e) To the best of our clients’ knowledge, the equipment under the contract was manufactured by

PICSIX Ltd in Hungary, and training was conducted in Hungary where the equipment was

manufactured;

(f) The contract states that the manufacturer of the equipment was PICSIX Ltd. This was true to

the best of our clients’ knowledge, and Mr Moloney and STL did not attempt to hide this fact.

Anyone can search for PICSIX Ltd on online search engines, and will immediately see details

of that company, including that it is founded in Israel;

(g) To the best of our clients’ knowledge, the equipment sold was not spyware and was not

illegal. Instead, it is a legitimate tool properly used by law enforcement agencies;

(h) The equipment sold was not an “IMSI-catcher” as alleged by Al Jazeera;

(i) Our clients have no knowledge of Haris Ahmed, Anis Ahmed, Josef Ahmed or General Aziz

Ahmed. Our clients have never met these persons, have never been involved in any

business with them, and never knew they existed until Al Jazeera published defamatory

allegations linking our clients with these persons; and

(j) Our clients were not involved in any wrongdoing as alleged in the Al Jazeera publications.