French President Emmanuel Macron among 14 heads of states on potential spyware list

Tthe Paris prosecutor’s office said it was investigating the suspected widespread use of Pegasus spyware to target journalists, human rights activists and politicians in multiple countries.

French President Emmanuel Macron leads a list of 14 current or former heads of state who may have been targeted for hacking by clients of the notorious Israeli spyware firm NSO Group, Amnesty International has said. “The unprecedented revelation ... should send a chill down the spine of world leaders,” Amnesty’s secretary general, Agnes Callamard, said in a statement on Tuesday. Among potential targets found on a list of 50,000 phone numbers leaked to Amnesty and the Paris-based journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories include Presidents Imran Khan of Pakistan, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Barham Salih of Iraq. Three current Prime Ministers and the king of Morocco, Mohammed VI, are also on the list, The Washington Post reported.