Another European Condemnation Expected Against Morocco’s Makhzen Regime Over “Pegasus” Spying Scandal

Next Thursday (9 February), MEPs will once again be discussing another issue in which the Moroccan Makhzen regime is accused: the “Pegasus” spying scandal, a software produced by the Zionist entity and used by the Makhzen secret service to spy on politicians and media figures in Europe and the Maghreb, including Algeria.
The aim of this meeting is to hold the Makhzen regime accountable for daring to violate the norms of relations between countries by hacking the phones of European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and his senior advisers in his country’s government, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, his Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlaska and Defense Minister Margarita Robles, as well as the former Belgian Prime Minister and current President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the former European Union envoy to the Sahel, the Italian Romano Prodi, and other targets in Algeria whose identities have not been revealed, according to investigations by human rights organizations and impartial media.
This meeting follows on from the one three weeks ago, which was also dedicated to holding the Makhzen regime to account for imprisoning journalists outside the law, restricting freedom of expression and violating human rights.
The European Parliament called on Rabat to release the imprisoned journalists and warned it against using the sword of justice to intimidate its opponents. This was stated in a list voted on by 356 MEPs, with only 32 votes against.
The European representatives invited a committee of experts to a hearing on the “geopolitics of spyware”, in the midst of the growing anger of the actors of the Old Continent at the behaviour that has characterized the positions of the Moroccan regime in recent times, which has become the logic of rogue regimes that do not recognize laws or international norms, especially after the revelation of another loud scandal, the attempt to buy off European representatives.
This comes at a time when the Europeans are putting pressure on the Moroccan regime. Last week, members of this Parliament asked its President, Roberta Metsola, to impose sanctions on the Makhzen regime for its involvement in the corruption scandal that has shaken the European legislative institution and to prevent Moroccan MPs from entering the European Parliament.
The European Parliament had voted on 10 March to set up a committee to investigate the use of the “Pegasus” spyware and “similar surveillance software” by the Moroccan Makhzen regime, and this committee included 38 MEPs, but after six months of investigation, the first report could not be presented on 8 November, preventing Morocco from being indicted for lack of evidence; A report that did not convince the actors on the European scene, who reopened the file after the accumulation of scandals involving the Makhzen regime, the latest of which was the political corruption scandal involving members of the European Parliament, in which the Moroccan ambassador to Poland, Abd al-Rahim Othmoun, was implicated with irrefutable evidence.
As the pressure on the beleaguered Makhzen regime increases and it is pushed into a corner, its friend in Spain, Pedro Sanchez, is trying to blackmail it into making more concessions in exchange for support that does not benefit him in any way (Sanchez’s party voted against the decision to condemn the Makhzen in the European Parliament, but this did not affect the decision after Spain’s support for the so-called autonomy plan, before it was confirmed during the Moroccan summit). On the 1st and 2nd of this month, Spain ordered the opening of a customs gate between the two countries in the occupied cities of Ceuta and Mellila.
It is expected that the European pressure on the “Makhzen” will continue and it is not excluded that it will reach its classification as a rogue regime with the disclosure of the results of the ongoing investigations with the former European representative, Pierre Antonio Panzieri, who promised to reveal all the parties he was involved with in exchange for obtaining a dilution of justice.