Polish mayor targeted by Pegasus spyware-media

An opposition-linked Polish mayor had his phone hacked using Pegasus spyware, Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported on Friday, amid allegations that the country’s special services have used the technology against government opponents.
Reports in 2021 by the Associated Press that the software, developed by Israel-based NSO Group was used to hack the phones of government critics, including a senator for the largest opposition party, have drawn accusations that security services are eroding democratic norms.
Gazeta Wyborcza, a liberal daily which is highly critical of ruling nationalists Law and Justice (PiS), reported that the phone of Jacek Karnowski, mayor of the Baltic seaside resort of Sopot, was hacked in 2018-2019, when he was working on the opposition’s campaign for elections to the upper house of parliament, the Senate.
It said that his number appeared on a list that it had access to as part of the investigative journalism initiative the Pegasus Project.