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Amnesty International says Morocco’s domestic intelligence service, the DGST, used Pegasus and a wider set of surveillance methods against journalists, activists and other people, then used or enabled pressure that could discredit, intimidate or silence them. The organization’s 1 October 2026 report bases that allegation on leaked records, digital forensics, interviews and former intelligence personnel’s testimony. Its findings are those of an NGO investigation, not a court judgment or an admission by Moroccan authorities.
What does Amnesty allege?
In “We start with the verdict”: Inside Morocco’s surveillance machine, Amnesty International attributes Morocco’s Pegasus deployments to the Direction Générale de la Surveillance du Territoire (DGST), the country’s domestic intelligence service. It says its findings document abuse against journalists and activists from 2017 to 2021, possibly continuing later. Amnesty presents Pegasus as one part of a broader surveillance system—not as the only tool or the whole explanation for the pressure it describes.
The report’s central claim is that surveillance was connected to efforts to harass, discredit and silence people who criticized the authorities or defended human rights. Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard called on Moroccan authorities to “immediately end the unlawful surveillance of human rights defenders and journalists.” That is Amnesty’s demand and legal assessment, not a finding issued by a court.
What evidence does the report cite, and what does it establish?
Amnesty says its October 2026 investigation drew on testimony from former Moroccan intelligence personnel, including a former DGST employee identified by the pseudonym Safir; leaked internal surveillance data and targeting records; leaked supplier material; digital forensic research; interviews with ten surveillance targets; and investigations by media partners coordinated by Forbidden Stories. Amnesty says it corroborated key aspects of Safir’s testimony with independent sources, technical evidence and interviews with human-rights defenders. It describes the work as a collaboration involving 14 media organizations.
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The counts describe different parts of the investigation: ten is the number of targets Amnesty says it interviewed, while 14 is the number of media organizations in the collaboration. Neither figure is the total number of people targeted or infected.
Numbers in the leaked Pegasus records
Amnesty says it matched 103 Moroccan phone numbers in records from the Pegasus system covering September through December 2017 to specific individuals. The numbers were entered into the system and identified as potential targets; that does not mean Amnesty confirmed infection on all 103 phones.
Amnesty classifies 65 of the individuals as civil-society members: 34 human-rights defenders, 22 journalists and media workers, five lawyers, and four academics. It separately classifies 25 as political representatives or officials, five as diplomats or representatives of international organizations, and eight as business people, religious figures, or people whose category was unclear. These are the report’s classifications of people associated with the matched numbers, not a tally of confirmed spyware infections.
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What is not established
The findings combine technical analysis with leaked material and testimony. They are substantial allegations, but the material summarized by Amnesty is not a judicial determination affirming every allegation. Amnesty says it wrote to Moroccan authorities before publication and received no response; silence is not an official concession. Amnesty also says it could not independently verify the source of information later disclosed by media outlets in some smear-campaign examples, although it considered the material to raise serious concerns about possible disclosure of surveillance-derived information.
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The report describes a mix of access to individual devices, interception or monitoring of communications, observation in physical spaces, and information gathered through people around a target. Some methods required a target to click or officials to obtain a device; others were described as covert or remote. Amnesty’s account therefore goes beyond Pegasus and smartphone infection.
Access to phones and computers
- Pegasus: Amnesty describes the NSO Group spyware as highly invasive software able to access information and functions on targeted phones. It attributes Moroccan deployment to the DGST.
- Different infection routes: Amnesty describes physical access to a device, one-click attacks that require a target to interact with a link, zero-click attacks that do not require that interaction, and network-injection attacks using the Maroc Telecom network.
- Other device tactics: The report also describes pre-infected devices, spyware installed on computers in internet cafés, and forensic extraction tools used when officials physically held a device.
Monitoring networks, places and people
- Amnesty describes intercepted calls, location tracking and IMSI catchers—devices that mimic mobile antennas and can capture data from nearby devices.
- It reports the use of hidden cameras and microphones in private spaces, GPS trackers, and access to public and private camera systems.
- It also describes informants recruited among people around targets. In Amnesty’s account, surveillance could reach family members, lawyers, friends and professional networks, not just the person directly targeted.
These are methods described in the report; the summary does not establish that every method was used against every named person.
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Which surveillance systems does the report name?
Amnesty’s account places Pegasus alongside commercial spyware, communications-monitoring systems, forensic tools and camera-access tools. The table summarizes how the organization describes the systems and the relevant historical relationships it identifies. A past sale or contract is not evidence of a current commercial relationship.
| System | How Amnesty describes it | Historical detail in the report |
|---|---|---|
| Pegasus (NSO Group) | Highly invasive spyware for accessing information and functions on targeted phones. | Amnesty attributes Moroccan deployment to the DGST and says its findings document abuses from 2017 to 2021, possibly later. |
| Remote Control System (RCS; Hacking Team, later Memento Labs) | Spyware Amnesty says can infect devices, including through physical methods. | The report says Moroccan agencies had contracts for RCS since at least 2009. |
| FinSpy (Gamma Group/FinFisher) | Spyware. | Amnesty’s summary says other civil-society research identified instances of use in Morocco. |
| Reliant 12 / RELIANT (Verint) | Systems for collecting and analyzing telephone communications and internet-related data. | Amnesty says Morocco purchased Reliant 12 in 2014 and discusses later internal sales records for RELIANT. |
| Eagle / Cerebro (Amesys and successive company names) | A system Amnesty describes as capable of country-wide IP traffic monitoring. | Amnesty says Morocco used it from December 2009; the report names Datafusion in the corporate lineage in 2024. |
| UFED (Cellebrite) | A forensic extraction tool that can access device data when an operator has physical custody. | Amnesty describes possible use when a device is held during detention or airport transit. |
| Cognyte tools; NightHawk (Interionet) | Amnesty describes Cognyte tools for fake social-media accounts and NightHawk for access to private camera systems. | The report discusses these capabilities; it does not establish that a historical contract means a current relationship. |
Amnesty’s Security Lab summary also says evidence of Hacking Team spyware attacks in Morocco had been revealed in 2012. That predates the report’s account of Pegasus deployment, which it says began in September 2017 and was fully operational by October of that year.
How does the report connect surveillance to pressure on journalists?
Amnesty describes surveillance alongside reputational and legal pressure. It says private material appeared in state-aligned media and online smear campaigns, and reports prosecutions, detention, imprisonment and pressure on some human-rights defenders to give false testimony. The organization argues that these combined tactics can intimidate people and chill journalism and activism.
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Rebecca White, an Amnesty International Security Lab researcher, said: “The tools they use are wide-ranging, but the goal is clear: to blackmail, discredit, shame and, if necessary, unjustly imprison those who speak out in defence of human rights in Morocco.” This is Amnesty’s characterization of the alleged purpose and effects; the report does not establish that every prosecution or media disclosure resulted from surveillance.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Did the alleged surveillance reach beyond Morocco?
Amnesty says it identified Pegasus attacks against Moroccan activists and journalists while they were abroad, as well as against some foreign nationals. The report also describes technologies supplied by companies based in Israel, Europe and the United States. This indicates alleged cross-border targeting and a multinational technology supply chain, but the historical supplier relationships described in the report should not be read as proof that every company still has a contract with a Moroccan agency.
In its account of company responses, Amnesty says Verint told it that it had divested the relevant business on 1 February 2021 and referred inquiries to Cognyte. Memento Labs said it had no active contract with a Moroccan agency. Amnesty says the other companies it contacted did not reply. These are responses reported by Amnesty, not independent findings about current contracts.
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What human-rights standard does Amnesty apply?
Amnesty’s Security Lab summary says covert surveillance is not inherently a human-rights violation if it has a clear legal basis and legitimate purpose, is necessary and proportionate, and is subject to independent oversight. Amnesty argues that targeting people because of their human-rights work is unlawful under international standards, even if domestic procedures are followed. That is the organization’s legal analysis; this account does not independently adjudicate Moroccan law.
Safir, the former DGST employee quoted under a pseudonym, said: “There are written laws, but they don’t apply.” His statement is testimony presented by Amnesty, not independently proven evidence about every surveillance operation.
Quick Recap
What is the timeline Amnesty describes?
- 2009: Amnesty says Moroccan agencies had contracts for Hacking Team’s Remote Control System since at least this year; it says Morocco used the Eagle/Cerebro system from December 2009.
- 2012: Amnesty’s Security Lab summary says evidence of Hacking Team spyware attacks in Morocco was revealed.
- September 2017: Amnesty says the DGST began deploying Pegasus, based on internal records and whistleblower testimony.
- October 2017: Amnesty says Pegasus operations were fully operational by this point and describes targeting of human-rights lawyer Abdessadak El Bouchattaoui.
- 2019: Amnesty’s earlier investigation reported forensic data from journalist Omar Radi’s phone indicating network-injection attacks on 27 January, 11 February and 13 September.
- 2017–2021, possibly later: Amnesty says the abuse documented in its 2026 announcement falls within this period, with the possibility that it continued later.
- 1 October 2026: Amnesty published the report and its summary.
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