Casarini says will file complaint on Paragon case

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 6 - The mission chief and founder of NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans Luca Casarini on Thursday said he will file a criminal complaint to prosecutors in Rome or Palermo over the case of Paragon Solutions, whose military-grade hacking software was allegedly used to spy on 90 people, including Casarini.
    "The legal team of Mediterranea Saving Humans is at work to present a complain on this case.
    "We will ask investigators to determine what happened and who ordered to spy on my phone through the Paragon software", said Casarini.
    The NGO mission chief said the complaint will be filed to the State Attorney's offices of Rome or Palermo, or both.
    Mediterranea Saving Humans on Wednesday said it had received an official communication from Meta, which manages the WhatsApp chat service, informing Casarini that his cell phone "had been violated in a high-level spyware operation, through the use of a software described as among the most sophisticated in the world".
    In an exclusive report published on Thursday, The Guardian newspaper said Paragon Solutions, whose military-grade hacking software was allegedly used to target up to 90 individuals including journalists and activists in two dozen countries, has terminated its client relationship with Italy, quoting a person familiar with the matter.
    The decision to terminate the contract reportedly comes less than a week after WhatsApp announced that Paragon's software was also used to target people in Italy, including the editor-in-chief of online investigative news outlet Fanpage, Francesco Cancellato, and Casarini.
    The Guardian's source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Paragon had initially suspended the contract with Italy "out of an abundance of caution" when the first allegation of potential abuse first emerged.
    The decision to fully terminate the contract, the newspaper quoted its source as saying, was made on Wednesday after the company determined that Italy had broken the terms of service and ethical framework it had agreed under its contract, according to the report.
    On Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's office at Palazzo Chigi confirmed that seven Italian citizens had been targeted.
    The government has denied that domestic intelligence services or the executive were behind the alleged breaches.
    Paragon Solutions sells its cyberweapon to government clients who are meant to use it to prevent crime, the newspaper wrote.
    However, it is still unclear whether specific government clients were behind the alleged attacks, the Guardian added.
    On Thursday, European Commission spokesperson Markus Lammert told reporters that national authorities would be responsible for probing such allegations and not the EU executive, noting however that, in general, "any attempt to illegally access the data of citizens, including journalists and political opponents, is unacceptable, if proven".
    The European Media Freedom Act provides "specific guarantees for journalists", he also noted. (ANSA).