A Swiss company supplied Serbia with a listening system
Keystone-SDA
A Swiss company has supplied the Serbian government with a geolocation and eavesdropping system, the SonntagsBlick newspaper reported on Sunday.
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The Swiss Confederation approved this sale in 2023, the Keystone-SDA news agency has learned.
The Swiss Confederation has approved the delivery of IMSI-catchers, valued at nearly CHF2 million ($2.19 million), to Serbian government departments. The Swiss economics ministry confirmed this to Keystone-SDA.
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The ministry didn’t specify whether the equipment was delivered to the Serbian secret services or the interior ministry. It also didn’t disclose the name of the Swiss company that supplied the equipment.
In December, Amnesty International revealed that the phones of several activists and journalists had been infiltrated by spyware controlled by Serbian intelligence services. The organisation claims this is a widespread and systematic practice. The country is currently in crisis, with Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigning amid widespread protests against government corruption.
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The delivery of surveillance equipment is forbidden in Switzerland if there is reason to believe it will be used for repression in the recipient country. At the time of approval, there wasn’t enough evidence to support this, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs spokesman Fabian Maienfisch told the SonntagsBlick.
Translated from French with DeepL/sp
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