During its four years of existence, the United Nations group of international experts charged with investigating human rights violations in Yemen will have come under pressure of all kinds: financial, political, diplomatic.
An investigation of the “Pegasus project”, which brings together The world and sixteen other editorial staff coordinated by the organization Forbidden Stories, now establishes that this UN investigative tool was also the victim of digital state espionage.
The only international mechanism mandated to investigate human rights violations committed by all parties to the conflict, which has ravaged Yemen since 2014, the expert group saw its mandate cut short in October 2021 after an intense lobbying campaign by the group. ‘Saudi Arabia. The kingdom is at the head of a coalition of Arab countries which intervenes in support of the Yemeni government in the war it is waging against the Houthi rebels. A commitment that makes Riyadh one of the protagonists of the conflict.
And it is this same protagonist who attempted, at least in August 2019, to infect the phone of human rights defender and former Tunisian minister Kamal Jendoubi using the powerful spyware Pegasus, marketed by the Israeli company NSO. This is the first time that facts targeting a UN entity by this software have been established.
“The behavior of a rogue state”
Appointed at the head of the group of experts in December 2017 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kamel Jendoubi and his team were then preparing to publish their second report detailing the war crimes that were committed during the conflict. Many of the violations “Can lead to the conviction of persons for war crimes if referred to an independent and competent tribunal”, concluded the investigators, who also called on the international community to refrain from selling arms to belligerents.
“This is the behavior of a rogue state. There are no other words. As international investigators, we are supposed to be at least protected. But I am not at all surprised. I have been apprehending this situation since 2019. We knew that we would be potentially targeted since the publication of our 2018 report. This report had created a shock in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates [également membre de la coalition arabe]. They did not expect such conclusions ”, remembers Kamel Jendoubi in an interview with World.
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