A London High Court awarded Saudi satirist and human rights activist Ghanem Al-Masarir more than three million pounds in damages on Monday. The court found compelling evidence that his phone had been hacked with government-grade spyware.
Al-Masarir is a London-based comic whose popular YouTube channel featured videos criticizing Saudi Arabia and earned him millions of viewers. He sued the Saudi government in 2019 after claiming his phone was targeted in 2018 with Pegasus, a mobile spyware sold by the NSO Group exclusively to governments.
Al-Masarir was also physically assaulted in London in 2018, around the same time his phone was targeted. He accused agents working for Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, of staging the attack. Researchers have noted that real-world attacks are often used in conjunction with digital surveillance tools like Pegasus.
The activist said the phone hacking and the physical assault caused him deep depression and ended his YouTube career.
Saudi Arabia rebuffed the legal challenge, claiming state immunity from prosecution. The kingdom had successfully used this argument in an earlier case involving the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
However, the High Court rejected Saudi Arabia’s claim of immunity in Al-Masarir’s case. This prompted the kingdom to take no further part in the litigation, according to reports.
In the ruling, Justice Pushpinder Saini stated there was a compelling basis to conclude that Al-Masarir’s iPhones were hacked by Pegasus spyware, resulting in data theft. The judge said the hacking was directed or authorized by the Saudi government or its agents. Justice Saini also found the Saudi government was probably responsible for the physical assault on Al-Masarir.
It remains unclear if Saudi Arabia will pay the damages or if the government plans to appeal the ruling.
A spokesperson for the NSO Group, which makes and sells access to Pegasus spyware, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Saudi Embassy in Washington D.C. also did not immediately respond.