Hanan Elatr, the widow of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has filed a lawsuit against Israeli company NSO Group for using Pegasus software to spy on her messages in the months before her husband was killed.
The lawsuit was filed on Thursday in the federal court in Virginia seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages.
Hanan believes that the Pegasus spyware was installed on two Android phones without her knowledge while she was in the UAE months before Khashoggi’s death.
“NSO intentionally targeted her devices and caused her great harm through the tragic loss of her husband and robbed her of her safety, privacy and freedom,” the suit says, Washington Post reported.
“She lives in a state of constant hyper-vigilance, unable to safely participate in social activities, constantly looking over her shoulder,” the suit claimed.
NSO Group could not immediately be reached for comment but previously denied using its software to hack Khashoggi’s devices.
The 59-year-old journalist was an outspoken critic of the Saudi regime and wrote several articles critical of Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Washington Post.
On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi was killed inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul and the case has become one of the most prominent and most discussed on the international agenda since then.
It was an assassination that US intelligence services believe was approved by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, although he denies it.
In November 2022, Biden Administration declares immunity for the Saudi Crown Prince in the Khashoggi murder case in the US.
