DUBAI (Middle East Eye) – A British human rights campaigner who was working to help release Dubai’s Princess Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum from detention had his mobile phone hacked by Pegasus spyware on 3 and 4 August 2020, according to a forensic analysis carried out by Amnesty International.
David Haigh’s iPhone 11 was infiltrated by Pegasus software, which is manufactured by the Zionist regime’s NSO Group, in an attack suspected to have been ordered by Dubai.
Amnesty International, Forbidden Stories, and a group of international media organizations have said the spyware was used in hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, officials, human rights activists, and political leaders.
The investigative group says they have acquired a list of 50,000 phone numbers that appear to be targets identified by the Zionist company’s clients to be spied upon using Pegasus.
Haigh’s number did not appear on the list, which included phone records only up to 2019. However, reporters asked if he would allow his phone to be tested as part of the ongoing investigation.
Haigh, who said he was “horrified” that he had been hacked, noted that at the time he had been secretly communicating with Latifa, the daughter of Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Latifa was detained by Dubai operatives and sent back to the emirate in 2018 after she attempted to escape from her father by crossing the Arabian Sea.
Last month, the Washington Post, one of the media organizations that analyzed the leaked phone numbers, said Latifa had been captured in 2018 with the help of Pegasus spyware.
The U.S. newspaper said phone numbers belonging to friends and associates of Latifa were added to the leaked list of numbers in the hours and days after the princess escaped Dubai with the help of her friend Tiina Jauhiainen, a Finnish capoeira instructor, in February 2018.