Poland's prosecutor general says previous government used spyware against hundreds of people

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s prosecutor general told the parliament on Wednesday that powerful Pegasus spyware was used against hundreds of people under the former government in Poland, among them elected officials.

Adam Bodnar told lawmakers that he found the scale of the surveillance “shocking and depressing.”

“It is sad for me that even in this room I am speaking to people who were victims of this system,” Bodnar told the Sejm, the lower house of parliament.

Bodnar, who is also the justice minister, did not specify who exactly was subject to surveillance by the spyware. His office said the information was confidential.

Bodnar was presenting information that the prosecutor general’s office sent last week to the Sejm and Senate. The data showed that Pegasus was used in the cases of 578 people from 2017 to 2022, and that it was used by three separate government agencies: the Central Anticorruption Bureau, the Military Counterintelligence Service and the Internal Security Agency.