"Intriguing Information Without Evidence": Kazakhstan On Pegasus Spy Claims

Pegasus Report: In Kazakhstan, reported targets of the Pegasus software include Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the current president.

A top official in Kazakhstan has called claims that Israeli-made spyware was deployed to monitor top officials including the current president "without evidence", as multiple countries began probing the allegations. Hungary, Israel and Algeria on Thursday joined France in announcing investigations into allegations that journalists, rights activists and 14 heads of state were spied on using software called Pegasus developed by Israel's NSO Group. But the deputy head of Kazakhstan's presidential administration Dauren Abayev said media reports on the list of targets leaked to rights groups were no more than "rather intriguing information without any evidence" in the ex-Soviet state's first comments on the scandal. "Realistically you can include anyone in this list, and thereby sow seeds of doubt in the country, among the elite, among journalists, and so on," Abayev said in an interview with the state broadcaster Khabar on Thursday.