London's High Court on Monday awarded a Saudi satirist and human rights activist more than £3 million (US$4.1 million) in damages after finding “compelling evidence” that his mobile phone had been hacked with government-grade spyware.
London-based cartoonist Ghanem Al Masalir had attracted millions of viewers on his popular YouTube channel, featuring videos critical of Saudi Arabia. He sued the Saudi government in 2019, claiming that his phone was targeted a year ago by Pegasus, a mobile spyware sold exclusively to governments by NSO Group.
Al Masari was also physically assaulted in London in 2018, when his mobile phone was targeted. He accused operatives working for Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, of orchestrating the attack. According to the researchers, real-world attacks are often used in conjunction with digital surveillance tools like Pegasus.
The cartoonist and activist said the attack on his cell phone and physical assault led to severe depression and ended his career on YouTube.
Saudi Arabia rebuffed al-Masrir's legal challenge, saying he had state immunity from prosecution, a claim it had successfully argued in an earlier case in which the Saudi leader was accused of orchestrating the murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Turkey.
However, Reuters, which first reported the court's decision, said the high court rejected Saudi Arabia's claim of immunity in al-Masalir's case, and Saudi Arabia will no longer participate in the case.
“There is compelling evidence to conclude that.” [al-Masarir’s] The iPhones were hacked by the Pegasus spyware, resulting in data leakage from those phones,'' Justice Pushpinder Saini said in the judgment.
The judge said the hack was “directed or authorized” by the Saudi government or its agents. Judge Saini also found that the Saudi government was likely involved in al-Masalir's assault.
It is not clear whether Saudi Arabia will pay al-Masreel or whether the government intends to appeal.
A spokesperson for NSO Group, which makes and sells access to Pegasus spyware, did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment. A spokesperson for the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C., did not give a similar statement.