The list of countries
According to Ekathimerini and research by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, Intellexa/Predator has been used by at least 7 EU member states. European Parliament investigations (the PEGA committee) documented its use in Greece (where the scandal broke in 2022), Spain, Hungary, Poland, and Cyprus. Traces were found in Vietnam, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Madagascar.
The European version of Pegasus
The comparison with Pegasus (NSO Group, Israel) is direct. Pegasus triggered a political earthquake in 2021 when the Forbidden Stories consortium revealed that 50,000 phone numbers had been targeted — journalists, dissidents, heads of state. President Macron, the King of Morocco, and the President of the European Parliament were on the list.
Intellexa is the same tool, but made in Europe, sold by Europeans to Europeans. The legal distinction matters: NSO Group could be treated as a "foreign" problem. Intellexa is a domestic one.
The silence
The European Parliament voted a resolution calling for a moratorium on spyware in 2023. No member state has complied. MEPs have requested a formal investigation into Intellexa. The request is pending.
The silence of French, German, and Italian media is troubling: if their governments are among the clients, they have a direct interest in not covering the story. The signal is faint — covered only by Ekathimerini and Greek Reporter — but the trajectory is clear: from specialized Greek press to a European parliamentary inquiry. Timeline: 1-2 months.
