Polish prosecutors say NSO kept Pegasus access as Turkey's defence role in Poland grows

Mixed · 2Polish prosecutors said on Monday 12 October that NSO Group, the Israeli maker of Pegasus spyware, retained technical access to sensitive surveillance data collected by Poland's Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA). 1 2 Mixed · 2According to the National Prosecutor's Office, experts from the Internal Security Agency (ABW) found that the CBA lacked passwords to some administrative accounts, that the module that infects phones stayed under NSO's "exclusive control", and that data passed through servers outside Poland that the bureau could not control. 1 2 Centre · 1Investigators could not establish whether NSO actually examined information gathered in specific operations. 1

Centre · 1Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the findings "a crime against the state" and said it was "beyond any doubt" that NSO cooperated with Israeli intelligence, accusing the previous government of giving an Israeli company and potentially the Israeli state access to sensitive information; the Media Line's reporting notes this goes beyond what investigators established about access to specific records. 1 Mixed · 2A parliamentary commission presented findings the same day and said it had prepared 11 criminal referrals; its chair, Magdalena Sroka, said the CBA bought and ran the spyware without the required security accreditation, and that authorising judges were not told Pegasus could extract virtually the whole contents of a phone. 1 2 Mixed · 2Poland acquired Pegasus in 2017 under the Law and Justice (PiS) government, using money from a Justice Ministry fund for crime victims. It was used to monitor hundreds of people, including political opponents, and Tusk has said his wife and daughter were among them. Former heads of the internal security and military counterintelligence agencies were charged in February and deny wrongdoing. 1 2

Centre · 1PiS says Pegasus was necessary against crime and court-authorised, and former CBA chief Ernest Bejda disputed the findings, denying Israeli authorities obtained Polish data. NSO has previously said its government customers operate Pegasus and control their surveillance, and had not publicly responded to the latest findings. 1 Mixed · 2The findings came on the opening day of the Warsaw Security Forum (12–13 October), where defence strategist Jacek Bartosiak of the Strategy & Future think tank named Turkey rather than Israel among Poland's key partners, saying "Our key allies are Ukrainians, Swedes, Finns and Turks." 1 2 Centre · 1Polish–Israeli relations were already strained: in August Poland summoned Israel's ambassador after Israel closed its investigation into the 2024 killing of Polish aid worker Damian Soból in Gaza, and in September Poland joined 11 other countries, including Britain and France, in declaring intentions to restrict trade with West Bank settlements. 1

Mixed · 2Defence cooperation with Israel continues: in July 2025 Poland signed a contract worth about $110 million for 18 coastal-surveillance radars from Elta, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries, with deliveries in 2027 and 2028, and Polish forces use Spike anti-tank missiles made under licence by Mesko. Bartosiak said the affair was unlikely to change purchasing much, as future contracts depend on battlefield capability and the European stance on Israeli policy. 1 2 Right · 1Turkish ties are growing: in September at the MSPO exhibition, ASELSAN signed an agreement with AMZ-Kutno for more reconnaissance and surveillance systems, following a $410 million electronic-warfare contract in December 2025, and Turkey's MKE and Poland's PGZ signed a memorandum on the TOLGA counter-drone system. Poland also bought 24 Bayraktar TB2 drones in 2021, the first EU and first non-Turkish NATO member to do so. 2 Centre · 1Both Turkish and Israeli suppliers face obstacles in Europe: the EU's €150 billion Security Action for Europe (SAFE) programme favours European-made components, and several governments are restricting purchases of Israeli weapons over Gaza. Israel nonetheless recorded $19.2 billion in defence exports in 2025, about $6.9 billion of them to Europe. 3