A key figure in the corruption trial of Israel’s former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have been illegally bugged by police, according to reports, amid global controversy about Israeli-made spyware and how it has been used.
In a recording broadcast by Channel 12 news, police are heard allegedly discussing tapping a phone belonging to Shlomo Filber, a former Netanyahu ally turned state witness. “It’s as if it’s illegal … to install the application,” a police officer says.
The claim emerged days after Israeli officials admitted that – contrary to earlier denials – they may have found evidence pointing to improper use of spyware by its own investigators.
It is not known what spyware was allegedly used in the Netanyahu case.
Netanyahu – who lost power in June after 12 consecutive years as prime minister – has pleaded not guilty to charges of bribery, breach of trust and fraud in three cases for which he was indicted in 2019.
A former head of the communications ministry, Filber is accused of mediating between Netanyahu and the controlling shareholder of Bezeq, a telecoms group, in an alleged plot to exchange regulatory favours for positive coverage of Netanyahu on a news site owned by the firm.
According to Channel 13, data was extracted from a phone without a court order and included photos, phone numbers, correspondence history and various applications.
A statement issued on the former prime minister’s behalf called the claims “Israel’s Watergate”. Netanyahu tweeted: “Earthquake. It was revealed tonight that police illegally hacked phones in order to bring down a strong rightwing prime minister.”
Israelis have long believed themselves immune to state surveillance, and allegations that they have been targeted have sent shockwaves through the country.On Tuesday, Israel’s attorney general, Avichai Mendelblit, announced the appointment of an inquiry team to look into potential police misuse of spyware.
Police declined to comment on the recording that emerged late on Wednesday, but a spokesperson told Agence France-Presse that the Israeli police would “cooperate fully and transparently” with the investigation team appointed by the attorney general.
Last month, NSO Group – which makes a controversial surveillance software that can switch on a phone’s camera or microphone and harvest its data – would neither confirm nor deny it sold technologies to the Israeli police, stressing it does “not operate the system once sold to its governmental customers and it is not involved in any way in the system’s operation”.
Filber tweeted in jest on Wednesday: “My wife responds: ‘Finally someone is listening to your prattling.’”
Israeli media reported last month that Netanyahu was negotiating a plea deal with the attorney general that would include admission of “moral turpitude”, an offence that carries a seven-year ban from politics. Netanyahu has denied this.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
