Germany charges four for selling spyware to Turkey's secret services to monitor opposition
- In Reports
- 10:45 PM, May 22, 2023
- Myind Staff
German authorities have filed charges against four suspects from a Bavarian company accused of selling surveillance software to Turkey that could be used to spy on Turkish dissidents, prosecutors said Monday.
The suspects were from FinFisher, a Munich-based company developing and selling spyware to law enforcement agencies and intelligence services.
The charges, which were filed at a regional court in Munich, allege that the former employees deliberately broke German export rules, routing sales through a Romanian company to sidestep the permits required to sell surveillance software outside the EU.
According to authorities, Turkish security services used the FinSpy software to target activists in 2017 by utilizing bogus websites purportedly connected to Kemal Klçdarolu, the long-time head of Turkey's largest opposition party.
The spyware was placed on a fake website that purported to be associated with Kılıçdaroğlu’s “March for Justice”, which was protesting against the post-coup purge launched by Erdoğan’s government, according to the initial complaint filed by the rights groups to prosecutors.
FinSpy had been "downloaded and deployed in Turkey on previously provided hardware, followed by training on its use," German prosecutors claimed on Monday.
According to authorities, the company allegedly signed a contract worth over five million euros ($5.4 million) in 2015 to sell monitoring software to Turkish secret services, along with training and support.
In 2017, the "FinSpy" software was offered to a Turkish opposition movement for download from a fake website "under false pretenses, in order to spy on them", the prosecutors said.
After receiving complaints from a number of NGOs, including Reporters Without Borders Germany and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, Munich prosecutors launched an investigation into FinFisher in 2019.
When contacted for comment regarding the suspected purchase and use of the FinSpy software, the Turkish authorities did not answer right away. No one could be found to comment on the charges against the accused, whose identities were not released.
Image source: Reuters
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