Colombia's Petro calls for investigation into Pegasus software purchase

BOGOTA (Reuters) -Colombia's President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday asked the attorney general's office to investigate the $11 million purchase of Pegasus spy software, which he said could have been used to spy on opposition politicians during the previous administration.

Spyware technology, including Pegasus, has been repeatedly found to have been used to hack into the phones of civil society, political opposition and journalists in the last decade.

Pegasus spyware in particular - built by Israeli firm NSO - was found on the phones of various people globally, including human rights defenders.

"How does $11 million in cash leave the country on a plane, or two, from state offices ... to go to Israel to buy software that spies on cell phones, private communications, politics, perhaps for months?" Petro said during a televised broadcast, citing documentation detailing the purchase from the Information and Analysis Unit (UIAF).

The president questioned if he or other politicians had been targeted and under what legal justification.

Petro requested the director of the UIAF and the head of the police turn over relevant documents and the software to the attorney general's office so that citizens can be content that their rights are respected by the state.

"We have to get to the bottom of the matter," Petro said.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta and Oliver Griffin;Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)