BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

13th October 2014

3 Refugees Say
They've Been Hacked
by Bahrain
On Monday three Arab pro-
democracy activists went
public with the allegation
that the electronic tentacles
of Bahrain's government
had followed them all the
way to Britain. It's one of a
growing number of cases in
which refugees say
repressive governments
have used malicious
software to keep tabs on
overseas activists.
"I thought I was safe here in
Britain, but the Bahraini
government is monitoring
me here," Moosa Abd-Ali Ali
said in comments carried by
London-based Privacy
International, which is ling
a criminal complaint on
behalf of him and two other
activists, Jaafar Al Hasabi
and Saeed Al-Shehabi.
The complaint, which draws
on documents recently
leaked to the Internet,
alleges that Bahrain's
government deployed
FinFisher, a powerful
espionage program, to
break into their computers
beginning in 2010 or even
earlier.
Read More
Bahrain spied on
political activists
living in the UK
The police National Cyber
Crime Unit has been asked
to investigate allegations
that the Bahrain
government and a UK-
German technology
company criminally
conspired to spy on political
activists living in the UK.
Three British-based
Bahrainis say that
sophisticated spyware
software was introduced to
their computers so that the
Gulf country could monitor
their activities.
Privacy International (PI)
has made a criminal
complaint against British
company Gamma
International after evidence
was posted online,
including real-time
conversations in which the
companys staff gave
technical support to
Bahraini ofcials in using its
FinFisher spyware. The
leak of 40 gigabytes of
information suggested 77
people had been targeted
by Bahrain.
Read More
UK police asked to
investigate alleged
Bahraini hacking of
exiles computers
The police National Cyber
Crime Unit has been asked
to investigate claims that
computers and mobile
phones used by exiled
Bahraini pro-democracy
activists living in the UK are
under illegal surveillance.
A complaint about Bahraini
ofcials alleged monitoring
of the devices was
compiled by the civil
liberties group Privacy
International (PI) and
submitted to the
Metropolitan police on
Monday.
The remote interference is
said to have started after Dr
Saeed Shehabi, Jaafar al-
Hasabi and Mohammed
Moosa Abd-Ali Ali
inadvertently downloaded
malicious software or had
their machines infected by
the programs. The intrusive
technology is able to copy
and transmit documents,
remotely turn on cameras
and microphones to record,
as well as send emails from
other peoples accounts,
according to PI.
Read More
The activists 'hacked'
by the government of
Bahrain
They arrived here to seek
refuge from a government
which allegedly tortured
them.
Dr Saeed Shehabi, 60, has
lived in the UK for more
than four decades, after
being sentenced to life
imprisonment in absentia by
Bahraini authorities.
He told Channel 4 News: "I
used to think 1984 was a
fantasy... but when I saw
my computer hacked from
miles away, I thought the
fantasy has come true."
He is one of three activists
who have been allegedly
monitored by malicious
software called Finsher. It
is thought the software can
be installed onto a person's
computer when they
accidently open an email
attachment.
Read More
Gamma International:
UK Complaint Filed
Over Surveillance of
Bahraini Activists
Rights group Privacy
International has led a
criminal complaint on behalf
of three Bahraini activists
who were allegedly spied
on in the UK by Bahraini
authorities using British
surveillance technology.
An investigation by Bahrain
Watch, a monitoring group,
revealed that Moosa Abd-
Ali Ali, Jaafar al-Hasabi and
Saeed al-Shehabi, three
activists who took asylum in
the UK, were all spied upon
using FinFisher,
sophisticated government
software produced by UK-
based Gamma
International.
FinFisher is used by many
countries such as Bahrain,
Ethiopia, Egypt and
Turkmenistan to monitor
dissidents, journalists and
human rights activists. It is
sold as "governmental IT
intrusion and remote
monitoring solutions" and
operates in at least 36
countries according to a
Citizen Lab report.
Read More
UK firms spyware
used to snoop on
Bahraini activists,
police told
Rights group Privacy
International has led a
criminal complaint in the UK
on behalf of three Bahraini
activists living in Britain who
were allegedly spied on by
Bahraini authorities using
British surveillance
technology.
An investigation by the
human rights group Bahrain
Watch claimed that three
pro-democracy Bahraini
activists who were granted
asylum in the UK, Moosa
Abd-Ali Ali, Jaafar al-Hasabi
and Saeed al-Shehabi,
were spied upon using a
software program called
FinFisher.
To nd out that I was not
even safe in the UK made
me very upset, said al-
Hasabi. It is wrong for the
Bahrain government to be
able to hack into my
computer from overseas.
And I think it is wrong for a
British company to help
them to do that.
Read More
PRIVACY GROUP
TARGETS BRITISH
SPYWARE
COMPANY OVER
BAHRAIN
SURVEILLANCE
The rights group Privacy
International asked the
British government this
morning to investigate a
surveillance company for
enabling spying on Bahraini
activists in the U.K.
The company in question,
Gamma Group, is a U.K.-
based rm that
providessurveillance
software and other lawful
intercept technology to
governments around the
world. Among their products
was FinFisher software,
which lets spies remotely
monitor a computer theyve
infected accessing les,
web trafc, Skype calls and
more. Privacy International
asked the U.K.s National
Crime Agency to investigate
the company.
Read More
Privacy group files
UK complaint over
FinFisher
surveillance of
Bahraini activists
The rights group Privacy
International has led a
criminal complaint in the
U.K. regarding the
surveillance of three
Bahraini activists on British
soil by the Bahraini
authorities, which
apparently took place using
the FinFisher spy tool.
FinFisher is a notorious
piece of spyware that was
produced by a British rm
called Gamma
International, but is these
days sold out of Germany. It
can be deployed in many
ways, most notably by
masquerading as software
such as Firefox and iTunes
updates.
Read More
Diplomacy, immunity
and justice
The British courts have long
been considered a forum of
independent and impartial
justice. One of the principal
components of this system
of justice is the application
of universal jurisdiction; a
process which allows
victims of torture committed
outside its borders to bring
claims before the British
courts. The application of
this process has recently
been called into question in
the case of F F, a Bahraini
national, allegedly tortured
during the Bahrain uprising
in 2011.
In 2012, lawyers acting for
F F sought the arrest and
prosecution of Prince
Nasser Bin Hamad Al
Khalifa, the son of the King
of Bahrain, when he visited
the UK during the London
Olympics. The Crown
Prosecution Service (CPS)
declined to prosecute on
the basis that Prince
Nasser was entitled to rely
on diplomatic immunity.
Prince Nasser was allowed
to return to Bahrain.
Read More
Bahraini Activists
Hacked by Their
Government Go After
UK Spyware Maker
Mohammad Moosa Abd-
Ali Ali sensed something
was wrong when he looked
down at the Facebook
history on his phone. It was
in 2011, during the time of
the Arab Spring, and the
app showed that hed
exchanged a series of
messages with a friend. The
messages asked his friend
where she was, what the
location and time of a
planned meeting with a
group of their friends was,
and who would be at the
meeting.
Ali never sent those
messages, though his
friend did not know this.
Quickly, he sent her an
email letting her know he
wasnt the correspondent,
but as soon as he got to a
computer to log into his
Facebook account, the
phantom messages sent to
his friend were gone.
Read More