Snowden: Israeli software may have helped to kill Khashoggi consulate in Istanbul

The former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, said that an Israeli software may have helped Saudi Arabia track down and kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October.

This came in front of an Israeli audience, via closed-circuit television broadcast from an undisclosed location in Moscow, where he currently lives.

“Israeli technology companies, such as the private NSO Group, are among the leading companies selling spyware that allow governments to track down their political opponents”, as the US “Bloomberg” agency reported, Snowden said.

He said a program called “Pegasus”, produced by the Israeli company, could hit a smartphone to the target viral infection, in order to turn the phone into a spying device.

Snowden, citing that Canadian Internet Security Foundation (Citizen Lab), said that the program may have been planted on the phone of another Saudi man who was in contact with Khashoggi.

“This may have enabled the Saudis to follow Khashoggi, until he arrived to the consulate in Istanbul”, he said.

Snowden said that, “the Israeli company NSO Group, is the worst among all e-espionage companies, which their entire business is based on the idea of ​​developing digital robbery tools”.