Amnesty rebuts BJP's claim that it does not acknowledge Pegasus reports

New Delhi: The BJP led Union government, which is seen in defensive mode after the Pegasus Project report, denounced the Project media probe as fake news, calling it 'yellow journalism.' The party also quoted Amnesty International to denounce the Project report, saying the Amnesty had not said the numbers suspected to be under surveillance were directly related to the Israeli company NSO Group.

Following Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi's statement that Amnesty had not linked the numbers found in the leaked list to Pegasus, Amnesty released a statement extending its deep-rooted support to the findings of the Pegasus Project.

"Amnesty International categorically stands by the findings of the Pegasus Project, and that the data is irrefutably linked to potential targets of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware. The false rumours being pushed on social media are intended to distract from the widespread unlawful targeting of journalists, activists and others that the Pegasus Project has revealed," said the statement.

The Minister claimed that the release of the data was to defame India and to derail the legislative process in Parliament while the report not only reveals Indian suspected targets of the Pegasus but also influential personalities across the world.

Calling the report a concocted, fabricated, evidence-less story Lekhi said that the leaked data was an offence and that leads to further complications for people who base their stories on leaked data.

The US investigative journalist, Kim Zetter's en English translation of an article published in Hebrew in which he wrote "Amnesty International has never presented this list as an NSO Pegasus Spyware List, although some of the world's media may have done so" had led to making such a statement.

Later Kim rectified it saying the translation was incorrect and was not Amnesty's stand. In its rebuttal, Amnesty said it was responding to "false allegations on social media and inaccurate media stories in relation to the Pegasus Project".