One of Catalonia’s most senior politicians has been warned his mobile phone was targeted using spyware its makers say is only sold to governments to track criminals and terrorists.

A joint investigation by the Guardian and El País has revealed that the speaker of the Catalan regional parliament, Roger Torrent and at least two other pro-independence supporters were told they were targeted last year in what experts said was a “possible case of domestic political espionage” in Europe...

WhatsApp believes the attacks occurred over a two week period in April to May 2019, when a total of 1,400 of its users were allegedly targeted by the ‘Pegasus’ spyware sold by the Israeli company NSO Group.

The popular messaging app claims more than 100 members of civil society, including journalists in India, human rights activists in Morocco, diplomats, and senior government officials, are alleged to have been affected.

WhatsApp has launched a lawsuit against NSO Group in the US. NSO Group insists its spyware is only sold to government clients for the purpose of tracking down terrorists and other criminals...

In a statement, the Spanish prime minister’s office said: “The government has no evidence that the speaker of the Catalan parliament, Roger Torrent, the former MP Anna Gabriel and the activist Jordi Domingo have been the targets of hacking via their mobiles.

“Furthermore, we must state that any operation involving a mobile phone is always conducted in accordance with the relevant judicial authorisation.”...

Asked to comment on this story, NSO Group said it operated under “industry leading governance policies” and that it could not confirm or deny which authorities use its technology because of confidentiality constraints.

“Once again speculative comments from CitizenLab only serve to highlight its continued, naive and ulterior agenda which fails to competently address the challenges faced by law enforcement agencies,” an NSO Group spokesperson said.