In Egypt, arms giant Dassault, a subsidiary of Thales, and the company Nexa Technologies sold a mass surveillance system to the dictatorship of Field Marshal Sisi. With the blessing of the French state.
The site continued to publish new secrets in what it called “Egypt Papers” (Mohamed Al-Shahed/AFP)
The Egyptian authorities blocked the investigative website, Disclose, hours after it published an investigation into France’s involvement in intelligence assistance to Egypt, which led to the targeting of civilians on the Libyan border.
On Wednesday, the website continued to publish new secrets in what it called “Egypt Papers”, and revealed in a new report that the giant French arms company “Dassault”, affiliated with Thales and Nexa Technologies, sold “a mass surveillance system to the dictatorship of Field Marshal Sisi, with the blessing of the French state.” site says.
The site interviewed the Egyptian youth Ahmed Alaa, who was imprisoned without any form of trial, in 2017, and the regime accused him of posting a picture of him online under the rainbow flag, the symbol of the “gay community”, at an underground rock concert in Cairo on the 22nd. September of that year.
An investigation into the sale of surveillance technologies to Libya and Egypt has led to charges against leaders at one company.
Senior executives at a French spyware firm have been indicted for the company’s sale of surveillance software to authoritarian regimes in Libya and Egypt that resulted in the torture and disappearance of dissidents.
While high-tech surveillance is a multibillion-dollar industry worldwide, it is rare for companies or individuals to face legal consequences for selling such technologies—even to notorious dictatorships or other dangerous regimes. But charges in the Paris Judicial Court against leaders at Amesys, a surveillance company that later changed its name to Nexa Technology, claim that the sales to Libya and Egypt over the last decade led to the crushing of opposition, torture of dissidents, and other human rights abuses.
Current and former executives at two French technology companies have been charged with complicity in torture for selling surveillance equipment to Libya and Egypt that was used to track down opponents, who were then detained and tortured.
Investigating magistrates in the war crimes unit of the Paris tribunal have charged the former chief of Amesys, Philippe Vannier, and three current and former executives of Nexa Technologies, with “complicity in acts of torture”, according to the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH).
EFF has grave concerns about the health of Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad, who has now been on hunger strike for 57 days. Sanad’s retrial was scheduled for October 13, but was postponed. Sanad, who was sentenced in April by a military court to three years in prison on charges of insulting the military on his blog, has stated that he will boycott any retrial.
We firmly support the statement made by Reporters Without Borders Wednesday, which reads:
“We condemn this persistence in persecuting Sanad and call for his immediate release. This military court should dismiss the charges against him. The repeated postponement of the hearings and the refusal to release him on bail are being used to prolong his detention. The original trial was unfair and violated the principles of justice. After its verdict was rightly quashed, the retrial must not be used to repeat the first trial.”
EFF reiterates our call for Sanad’s immediate release.
The Atlantic Council: “State cyber capabilities are increasingly abiding by the “pay-to-play” model—both US/NATO allies and adversaries can purchase interception and intrusion technologies from private firms for intelligence and surveillance purposes. NSO Group has repeatedly made headlines in 2021 for targeting government entities in cyberspace, but there are many more companies selling similar products that are just as detrimental. These vendors are increasingly looking to foreign governments to hawk their wares, and policymakers have yet to sufficiently recognize or respond to this emerging problem. Any cyber capabilities sold to foreign governments carry a risk: these capabilities could be used against individuals and organizations in allied countries, or even in one’s home country. Because much of this industry operates in the shadows, research into the industry in aggregate is rare.
State cyber capabilities are increasingly abiding by the “pay-to-play” model—both US/NATO allies and adversaries can purchase interception and intrusion technologies from private firms for intelligence and surveillance purposes. NSO Group has repeatedly made headlines in 2021 for targeting government entities in cyberspace, but there are many more companies selling similar products that are just as detrimental. These vendors are increasingly looking to foreign governments to hawk their wares, and policymakers have yet to sufficiently recognize or respond to this emerging problem. Any cyber capabilities sold to foreign governments carry a risk: these capabilities could be used against individuals and organizations in allied countries, or even in one’s home country.
The controversial Swedish forensic technology company MSAB receives harsh criticism in a new research report published by the American think tank Atlantic Council. The reason is that the company has marketed its cutting-edge products in the authoritarian countries of China and Russia. – It is surprising that they market themselves so aggressively in Russia, says one of the report’s authors, Lars Gjesvik, a researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Foreign Policy Nupi.