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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington and Angela Giuffrida in Rome

Italian founder of migrant rescue group ‘targeted with spyware’

Italian activist Luca Casarini
The Italian activist and founder of the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans, Luca Casarini, is among 90 people who may have had their phone hacked by Paragon Solutions. Photograph: Independent Photo Agency Srl/Alamy.

The Italian founder of the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans, who has been a vocal critic of Italy’s alleged complicity in abuses suffered by migrants in Libya, has revealed WhatsApp informed him his mobile phone was targeted by military-grade spyware made by the Israel-based company Paragon Solutions.

Luca Casarini, an activist whose organisation is estimated to have saved 2,000 people crossing the Mediterranean to Italy, is the most high profile person to come forward since WhatsApp announced last week that 90 journalists and other members of civil society had probably had their phones compromised by a government client using Paragon’s spyware.

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