<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Plurinational Parliamentary Group Sumar has denounced the awarding, by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Civil Guard to the head of Moroccan intelligence, Abdellatif Hammouchi, whom several European media outlets have identified as "the main person responsible" for spying on high-ranking government officials, including President Pedro Sánchez, using the Israeli spyware Pegasus.</strong></h4> Last Tuesday, Grande-Marlaska awarded Hammouchi the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Civil Guard, "the highest distinction of the Civil Guard," which "is awarded by Royal Decree of the Council of Ministers," Sumar (a junior partner in Pedro Sánchez's coalition government) pointed out in a written parliamentary question submitted this Wednesday to Congress. According to a statement released by the Ministry of the Interior on social media, Abdellatif Hammouchi, Morocco's Director General of Territorial Security and National Security, was decorated for "Morocco's collaboration in security and the fight against terrorism." The ceremony took place on November 11 at the headquarters of the Directorate General of the Civil Guard in Madrid. In his parliamentary question, Enrique Santiago, Secretary General of the PCE (Communist Party of Spain), a member of parliament for United Left, and the driving force behind the Sumar initiative, points out that Hammouchi, head of Moroccan intelligence, is the "prime suspect in installing the Israeli spyware Pegasus on 200 Spanish mobile phones, including those belonging to members of the government," and that Grande-Marlaska himself "is one of the members of the Spanish government (...), along with many other prominent figures in national and international politics, whose phones were spied on with the Israeli malware Pegasus, according to the complaint filed by the government with the National Court in May 2022." Sumar also points out that the decorated official holds, among other positions, the head of the National Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DGST), a Moroccan intelligence service, and that, “when the Pegasus scandal broke in July 2021, several European media outlets identified Hammouchi as the main person responsible.” Furthermore, the party led by Vice President Yolanda Díaz notes that, in July 2023, the National Court provisionally shelved the investigation into the spying on members of the government “citing Israel’s lack of cooperation in obtaining crucial information.” Despite this, they continue, the case was not definitively closed and, “in 2024, the same court reopened a part of the case after receiving information from the French justice system that could provide additional evidence.” In Sumar’s view, it is “essential to clarify and determine all responsibilities in this unacceptable case.” Therefore, he warns, while the investigation into responsibility remains ongoing, it would be imprudent to award a medal to someone identified as the potential perpetrator of this serious case of infiltration and espionage. For all these reasons, Sumar asks the Government whether it has verified that the recipient did not participate in the introduction of the Pegasus program onto the phones of the Prime Minister and other prominent figures in national politics, and whether Hammouchi has any outstanding legal requirements in France or at any European Union body. Ignacio Cembrero, of ‘El Confidencial’, was the journalist who reported in Spain on Rabat's involvement in spying on the mobile phones of several Spanish leaders (including Pedro Sánchez, the Minister of Agriculture and former ambassador to Rabat, Luis Planas; the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya; and the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles), and even on his own personal mobile phone, through Pegasus. This is not the first decoration Hammouchi has received in Spain. On October 22, 2014, the government awarded him the “Honorary Cross of Police Merit with Red Distinction” in recognition of “services rendered in the fight against Islamist cells.” Around the same time, a complaint had been filed against him in France for the alleged torture of Sahrawi political prisoner Naama Asfari and French-Moroccan citizen Adil Lamtalsi. On September 23, 2019, the Spanish government, at the proposal of Fernando Grande-Marlaska himself, decided to award him the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Civil Guard. In May 2024, Abdellatif Hammouchi attended the bicentennial celebrations of the Spanish National Police in Madrid, held at the Royal Palace, presided over by the King and Queen, and attended by Pedro Sánchez, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo; the president of Congress, Francina Armengol; the first vice president of the Government, María Jesús Montero; and the ministers of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska; Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and Agriculture, Luis Planas, among other officials.
