Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomes news of significant progress in the criminal investigation of illegal exports of surveillance technology by German spyware company FinFisher.

Public prosecutors have searched about a dozen offices belonging to the Munich-based spyware manufacturer... following criminal charges that RSF Germany and other civil society organizations filed against the FinFisher conglomerate in 2019, based on indications that it had illegally sold and exported its FinSpy intrusion software to the Turkish government. The search marks an important development in RSF’s international efforts to stop an out-of-control trade in surveillance technology that threatens the rights of journalists worldwide.

In summer 2017, FinSpy was detected on a webpage disguised as a mobilization website of the Turkish opposition movement from where it was downloaded and likely used to monitor political activists and journalists. RSF Germany filed criminal charges against the executive directors of FinFisher GmbH, Finfisher Labs GmbH and Elaman GmbH, all part of the FinFisher conglomerate, in July 2019. Public prosecutors subsequently opened an investigation into a possible violation of the German foreign trade law, which was amended in 2015 to include national licencing obligations of certain surveillance products. Breaches of the law are punishable with up to five years in prison or a financial penalty.