A former member of the European Parliament was hacked with Pegasus spyware while serving on a committee investigating surveillance by the tool’s Israeli creator, a Canadian research group has found.The iPhone of Greek investigative journalist Stelios Kouloglou, who served as an MEP from 2015 to 2024, was infected at least three times with Pegasus spyware in 2022 and 2023, Citizen Lab said in a report released on Friday.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe three incidents, which occurred while Kouloglou was in Athens and Brussels, coincided with the ex-parliamentarian’s time on a committee tasked with investigating the illegal use of Pegasus and other spying tools in the European Union, according to Toronto-based Citizen Lab.European lawmakers established the PEGA Committee in 2022 following revelations that governments in the bloc had used Pegasus to monitor journalists, activists, politicians, and other citizens.Kouloglou received Apple threat notifications about possible Pegasus breaches after the intrusions, but only months after each incident, according to Citizen Lab.Kouloglou, who did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment, requested that the research group conduct a forensic investigation of his phone in May.Citizen Lab said in its report that the incident highlighted the “serious threat that mercenary spyware poses to the integrity of democratic processes”.“Whichever entity is responsible for the hacking, the infection could …
