The Supreme Court Endorses Government's Decision Not to Declassify All Information Requested by Judge on Aragonès Espionage

The Supreme Court (SC) has endorsed the Government's decision not to declassify all documents regarding the CNI's espionage on former Catalan President Pere Aragonès using the Pegasus software, maintaining the secrecy of other information requested by the investigating judge, as revealing all the required data would endanger Spanish intelligence services and, consequently, national security.

This is stated in a ruling accessed by Europa Press, where the SC's Administrative Chamber rejects the appeal filed by the Generalitat of Catalonia on March 18, 2024, aiming for the Government to declassify all information requested by Barcelona's Investigating Court Number 29.

The Generalitat of Catalonia appealed the decision made on January 16, 2024, by the Council of Ministers, which partially granted the court's request to declassify secret documents as part of its investigation into Aragonès's complaint of being a victim of "mass political or ideological espionage" by the CNI using Pegasus.

The Government partially complied with the judge's request. It declassified information regarding Aragonès's mobile phone, stating that "the CNI conducted activities affecting the constitutional right to communication secrecy" due to actions by the Catalan leader that "were beyond his official duties and contrary to national security."

It lifted the secrecy on a series of information and orders issued by the Supreme Court magistrate overseeing the CNI, the current president of the Administrative Chamber, Pablo Lucas, but refused to declassify documents related to "the purchase and possible use of the Pegasus program" by Spanish intelligence services.

The Executive specified that the agreed declassification should be carried out "with the safeguard of any information or data that could lead to the knowledge of the CNI's activities, means, procedures, and sources of information" to ensure its security and not compromise the "effectiveness" of intelligence services and, thereby, "the security of the State and national defense."

The Generalitat deemed this partial declassification insufficient and appealed to the Supreme Court to attempt to lift the secrecy on the entire set of information requested by the investigator, arguing that "the seriousness of the facts under investigation" required it.

Meanwhile, the State Attorney argued that "the security of the State must be balanced with access to secret documentation admitted as evidence in a criminal investigation, in this case, regarding the requested information on the CNI's activities, means, and procedures, specifically concerning the Pegasus program."

According to the Supreme Court's ruling, authored by Judge Pilar Teso, the denial appealed by the Generalitat "focuses primarily on documentation, data, procedures, and reports on the origin, use, acquisition, purchase, reception, order, payment, involved persons, and their connection to the phone number used by Aragonès, in relation to the so-called Pegasus program."

The SC, contrary to the State Attorney's request, agrees to review the Generalitat's appeal because, although it was challenged in its name, it understands that it has standing to do so because the partial declassification "affects someone who held a significant public office, first as vice president and councillor, and later as president of the Generalitat, considering their duty to ensure the proper limits within which the political actions of such positions should operate."

"Certainly, for the purposes of active standing, holding the position and performing its functions regularly, without interference or obstructions that undermine its action in defense of the interests inherent to its autonomy, is something that cannot be alien to the sphere of interests of the Generalitat of Catalonia," the high court concedes.

However, it rejects the Generalitat's claims, stating that "declassification cannot be automatic or unreflective in response to any request, not even in cases where it coincides with a criminal investigation."

"Similarly, the reference to State security cannot be used as an apodictic assertion lacking solid argumentative support," it warns, emphasizing that this is not the case.

In this context, it points out that the information requested by the investigator, which the Government did not declassify and which the Generalitat demands, would make "evident" the "means available to Spanish intelligence services in general, revealing the nature and scope of these," which would not only reduce their "effectiveness" but also create "risk zones that place the State and its citizens in a situation of undeniable vulnerability."

"Ultimately, it would endanger not only the security of CNI agents but also the security of all citizens and the very existence of the Rule of Law," it assures.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court considers that "the declassification of such matters could also compromise foreign intelligence services in general, and specifically regarding the Israeli companies mentioned in the evidence request and their country of origin."

Additionally, it highlights that the Government "already agreed to the declassification of documents whose secrecy could be lifted and which reveal, according to the cited agreement, that Aragonès was indeed subject to an interception measure" of communications, and that this measure was "legal" because "it was carried out with the corresponding authorization from the magistrate" of the SC overseeing the CNI.