Spanish Intelligence Director Questioned in Pegasus Espionage Investigation
Spain's former intelligence director Paz Esteban was questioned as a defendant in a judicial investigation into alleged use of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware to surveil independent Catalan politicians and activists. She invoked official secrets protections and declined to provide substantive testimony about the alleged espionage.
What happened
Paz Esteban, former director of Spain's Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), appeared before Barcelona's Juzgado de Instrucción Número 20 on September 29, 2025, as a defendant in an investigation into alleged espionage using Pegasus spyware against independent Catalan politicians.
The Barcelona Provincial Court had ordered her imputación after finding "indicios" (indications) suggesting the CNI was the probable author of infections on mobile phones belonging to ERC members Josep Maria Jové and Diana Riba, using the same technique and infrastructure employed in the case of former president Pere Aragonès.
Reported impact
The investigation concerns alleged unauthorized surveillance of independent Catalan politicians and activists using NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, reportedly deployed without judicial authorization for some of the targets.
Esteban declined to provide substantive testimony, invoking Spain's Official Secrets law and citing only what had been declassified by the Council of Ministers, stating "the CNI did not conduct any action in relation to Jové and Riba."
Index analysis
The Barcelona Provincial Court determined there were sufficient grounds to believe the CNI was likely the only Spanish client of NSO Group and therefore the probable source of the Pegasus infections targeting multiple phones belonging to members of the same political environment.
The use of identical programs, techniques, servers, and malicious domains across investigations into different ERC members raised suspicions of coordinated surveillance by a state actor with government authorization and legal basis.
Governance controls
Esteban appeared before the court accompanied by State Counsel lawyers, invoking the Official Secrets law as a barrier to disclosure despite requests for declassification.
Spain's Council of Ministers had previously opened the possibility in 2023 of declassifying secret documentation about the Aragonès case, but no such authorization was extended to the current investigation.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.