Pegasus project: Dalai Lama’s inner circle may have been targeted

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 22

French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered probes into his phone number and that of 14 of his Cabinet colleagues appearing in the leaked database at the heart of the Pegasus project while the latest revelations by a consortium of media houses show that the inner circle of the Dalai Lama may have been targeted.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International refuted Union Minister of State Meenakshi Lekhi’s contention that the human rights body had denied the list circulating in the media.

“In response to false allegations on social media and inaccurate media stories in relation to the Pegasus Project,” Amnesty International said it categorically stood by the findings. The data is “irrefutably linked to potential targets” of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, it said.

The latest set of revelations touched India when it emerged that for two years, the closest circle of advisers around the Dalai Lama were potential targets of surveillance by a client of the Israeli spyware firm NSO Group.

The numbers include that of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorji, fled India in 2018 without the knowledge of the Indian intelligence services.

The Dalai Lama’s envoy in New Delhi, Tempa Tsering, senior aides Tenzin Taklha, Chimmey Rigzen, Samdhong Rinpoche and Lobsang Sangay were also on the list.

French PM Jean Castex said the President had “ordered a series of investigations’’ in order to “look at this very closely, given the potential seriousness.’’ The mobile phone of a former Minister has shown digital traces of activity.