News Updates for 21 March

Former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov

Bulgaria's Ex-Premier Borissov Targeted in EU Corruption Probe

Bulgaria's former premier Boyko Borissov was arrested following an investigation into alleged wrongdoing during his time in office.

Borissov, who has since been released from custody, won three elections in Bulgaria and stepped down after a newly-formed party won the 2021 general elections on an anti-corruption platform.

Borissov, 62, is still the leader of opposition center-right GERB party. He was taken into custody with several other party members in an investigation related to misuse of EU funds. He told media that police came into his home but did not find anything incriminating and did not charge him.

"Nobody is above the law!" Prime Minister Kiril Petkov posted on his Facebook page. His party came to power on an anti-corruption platform.

The arrests came after a visit to Sofia by European Chief Prosecutor Laura Koevesi who praised Petkov's "determination, leadership, and compelling vision on the fight against corruption."

"Now is the time for the relevant Bulgarian authorities to team up with us, including on particularly sensitive cases," Koevesi said.

EU Lawmakers Want Probe of Pegasus Phone Spyware Across Bloc

The European Parliament voted to create a committee of inquiry to investigate allegations that some EU member states are using Pegasus mobile spyware from the Israeli company NSO to target journalists, activists and human rights defenders.

The investigation aims to determine whether EU laws were violated, the primary targets being “the use of the surveillance software by, among others, Hungary and Poland.” Whether national laws regulating surveillance are sufficient will also be on the committee’s agenda.

The use of NSO group’s surveillance technology has been documented by a number of researchers and journalists, most recently in the 2021 collaborative investigation the Pegasus Project, which was coordinated by French non-profit Forbidden Stories. This investigation brought attention to the use of Pegasus within the EU, with Canadian research organisation Citizen Lab documenting the apparent targeting of Polish opposition figures. Both the Hungarian and Polish governments have subsequently admitted to acquiring Pegasus, though they deny using it to monitor journalists and political opponents.

Telenor Accused of Breaking EU Sanctions With Myanmar Spyware

Norway’s state-owned telecommunications company Telenor, is reportedly seeking permission to sell off its business in Myanmar. Any sale of Telenor Myanmar to the country’s government would include a ‘lawful intercept’ system installed to comply with local electronic surveillance laws. This part of the sale would breach European Union sanctions against the military government.

The site Myanmar Now claimed that the lawful interception system employed by Telenor is made by a German firm called Utimaco and designed to help telecoms firms comply with electronic surveillance laws around the world.

Myanmar Now has raised the alarm about the likely misuse of technology that “intercepts a range of public communications services in real-time, including phone and video calls, messages… faxes, e-mails … file transfers, and other Internet services.” Myanmar’s junta has tried to eradicate independent media and jailed journalists and dissidents while consolidating power.

An unnamed Telenor staff member told the site that Utimaco’s system is a system all other operators in Myanmar had to install. The site said it saw documents leaked to the activist group Justice For Myanmar which shows that Telenor installed the system in May 2018 after acquiring it from Huawei.

Media Freedom, Electronic Rights Groups Fear EU CSAM Surveillance

A European Union proposal to require providers of e-mail, chat or message services to search and report Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) through bulk interception, monitoring and scanning the content of all communications is unwarranted mass surveillance, media freedom and electronic rights groups said.

The plan would in theory cover messages that are end-to-end encrypted, which could cause problems for providers who provide their users with secure communications.

Groups that have objected to the proposal include European Digital Rights, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the German Bar Association and the Committee to Protect Journalists. Some have likened the plan to similar to a scheme floated by Apple and later largely dropped after an outcry from the technical community.

German MEP Patrick Breyer from the German Pirate Party told EU Reporter that “Will the next step will be for the post office to open and scan all letters?

“Organized child pornography rings don‘t use e-mail or messengers. Indiscriminately searching all correspondence violates fundamental rights and will not protect children. It actually puts their private pictures at risk of falling into the wrong hands and criminalizes children in many cases.”

EU Banks tracking Russia, Belarusian clients over sanctions compliance

Following the imposition of unprecedented sanctions against individuals from Russia and Belarus implicated in the invasion of Ukraine, European banks are surveilling Russian and Belarusian account holders in bulk to ensure they are not skirting sanctions. According to Reuters, some 230,000 bank clients in Germany and 81,000 in Spain are being actively monitored.

A bank source quoted by Reuters said, “The instructions from ECB (European Central Bank) supervisors mean tens of thousands of Russians and Belarusians resident in the EU face intense surveillance by their banks, which are on alert for big payments and deposits as well as new credit applications,”

“At first, the measures were focused on those of Russian nationality, whether they were residents or non-residents, and later it was extended to Belarusians.”

Aside from restrictions on named individuals, the new sanctions regime imposes some restrictions on access by Russian nationals to banking services, including preventing banks from accepting deposits above 100,000 euros ($110,000) from Russian nationals or entities.

While it is not the ECB's role to police sanctions, the supervisors are concerned that banks in the bloc could incur hefty fines if their clients channel money on behalf of sanctioned individuals.