Two human rights organizations said that investigative judges in France indicted 4 officials of the French companies Amesys and Nexa Technologies, in cases of selling electronic devices to the Egyptian and Libyan regimes, which were used to spy on opposition figures who were arrested and tortured.
And the International Federation for Human Rights stated – in a statement today, Tuesday, quoting judicial sources – that the investigative judges in the Crimes Against Humanity section of a Paris court, charged Philippe Vannier, the former head of the “Amisys” company, with the accusation of complicity in acts of torture in Libya, and Olivier Bobo, the head of a company. Nexa Technology”, its general manager Renault Rock, and the former president of the same company, Stefan Salles, are accused of complicity in acts of torture and enforced disappearance in Egypt.
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Officials of the two French companies are accused of selling electronic surveillance devices to the authorities in Egypt and Libya, which were used to monitor opposition figures in the two countries, then arrest and torture them. According to court papers, Amesys sold to the Gaddafi regime between 2007 and 2011 an electronic monitoring program called “Eagle”, which was used to spy on dissidents and then imprison and torture them.
The company acknowledges
The company admitted that it had provided the Gaddafi regime with “analytical material” related to “internet communications,” noting at the same time that the contract for the sale of these devices was signed in the context of a diplomatic rapprochement between Paris and Tripoli during the rule of former President Nicolas Sarkozy. Victims of the Gaddafi regime spying by the French electronic program.
The second file relates to a judicial investigation launched in 2017, looking into the sale of an information program manufactured by the French company called “Seribro” to the Egyptian authorities by the “Nexa Technology” company, which was also used to track opponents of the regime of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and it specializes in tracking text messages and phone calls.
The two French judicial investigations were launched following a complaint from the International Federation for Human Rights and the League for Human Rights with the support of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. Millions of euros, in order to fight the Muslim Brotherhood.
Commenting on the French judiciary’s decision, Clemence Beckart and Patrick Baudouin, lawyers for the International Federation for Human Rights – in a statement – said, “It is a tremendous achievement, and it means that what we see every day on the ground – that is, the links between the activity of surveillance companies and human rights violations – can take the character of criminal charges, and that charges of complicity may be brought.
Michel Tubiana, lawyer and honorary president of the Human Rights League, expressed his desire for the French authorities to “resolutely undertake to take all measures to prevent the export of dual-use surveillance technology to countries that seriously violate human rights.”