Citizen Lab says former EU lawmaker on spyware inquiry was hacked with Pegasus
The Facts
- Citizen Lab said former European Parliament member Stelios Kouloglou was hacked with Pegasus spyware.
- Citizen Lab said Kouloglou’s phone was hacked at least three times between October 2022 and March 2023.
- At the time of the reported hacking, Kouloglou was serving on the European Parliament’s PEGA committee, which was set up to examine spyware use in the EU.
- Kouloglou is a Greek journalist and former member of the European Parliament.
- Multiple reports say this is the first publicly documented case of a PEGA committee member being identified as a Pegasus victim.
- Pegasus is spyware distributed by the Israeli company NSO Group.
- Citizen Lab did not attribute the hacking to a specific government operator.
Context
Who is Stelios Kouloglou?
Kouloglou is a Greek journalist and former member of the European Parliament who served from 2015 to 2024 and sat on the PEGA committee examining spyware use in the EU Al Jazeera Online,Wired,Next Web.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- A spyware target inside the very body examining spyware use underscores a real accountability failure that democratic oversight has not been able to prevent.
- Where Left and Right split
- Whether the story is about surveillance reaching into democratic oversight, or about democratic institutions losing control over a powerful commercial spyware market.
How left and right read it
What stands out here is the power imbalance: a journalist and former lawmaker serving on a committee examining spyware use was himself hacked with Pegasus, and reportedly not just once but at least three times. If the first publicly documented Pegasus victim from that committee is one of the people tasked with scrutiny, that is a stark reminder of how surveillance tools can reach directly into democratic oversight while accountability remains unresolved.
What matters here is how little control democratic institutions seem to have over a powerful commercial spyware market. A former European Parliament member serving on a committee examining spyware use was reportedly hacked with Pegasus at least three times, yet Citizen Lab could not identify a specific government operator. That combination points to a basic failure of accountability and strategic self-command.
The receipts — all 37 sources
Wire services (5)
Independent coverage (32)
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