German Federal Court Rules Against Morocco in Pegasus Case
In a significant ruling delivered on February 24, 2026, the Federal Court of Germany (BGH) dismissed appeals from the Kingdom of Morocco against prominent media outlets ZEIT ONLINE (Case No. VI ZR 415/23) and Süddeutsche Zeitung (Case No. VI ZR 416/23). This decision marks the culmination of a protracted legal battle concerning reports about the Israeli surveillance software "Pegasus". The BGH upheld the findings of lower courts, asserting that a foreign state cannot invoke general personality rights under German civil law.
The crux of the legal dispute revolved around whether a state can claim protection for its reputation. The BGH clarified that this is not the case. The general personality right, derived from Article 2(1) in conjunction with Article 1(1) of the German Basic Law, primarily safeguards natural persons and imposes limitations on legal entities of private law. Sovereign states do not fall within this protective framework.
Furthermore, the court ruled that even criminal defamation offenses, such as slander (§ 187 StGB), do not create a civil injunction claim for a state. Morocco had contended that the reports regarding the potential use of Pegasus software violated its "dignity as a state," a claim the court rejected. While the affected news organizations hailed this ruling as a "crucial decision for press freedom," Morocco's legal counsel criticized the absence of a mechanism for states to counter false reporting.
The controversy originated from an international investigation conducted by 17 media organizations in 2021. According to these reports, the Moroccan intelligence service allegedly utilized the software from the Israeli NSO Group to spy on political figures such as Emmanuel Macron and Pedro Sánchez, as well as activists.
The Moroccan government has vehemently denied these allegations, asserting that it has neither been a client nor a user of the software and categorizing the reports as defamatory.
Regardless of the legal outcome in Germany, the evidence remains contentious on an international scale. Investigations at the EU level—including a special report by the European Parliament—have yet to produce conclusive evidence of Morocco's direct involvement.
This leaves the central question unresolved: who is responsible for the documented espionage attacks? While the Karlsruhe ruling bolsters press freedom in Germany, the political ramifications continue to unfold, including investigations by the Spanish judiciary into attacks on devices belonging to senior government officials.
As reported by maghreb-post.de.
