Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s agents hacked the phone of his ex-wife Princess Haya using NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware in an unlawful abuse of power and trust, read the ruling by the English High Court, according to a report in The Guardian. The court added that Rashid al-Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler and the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), hacked Haya, her divorce lawyer Fiona Shackleton, and four of her other associates, the British daily reported. The senior judge Sir Andrew McFarlane delivered the ruling in the case of a bitter custody battle that emerged between the al-Maktoum and Haya after she fled to London with their two children in April 2019. The ruling substantiates the investigation undertaken by the Pegasus Project, a consortium of 17 media organisations. It found that journalists, heads of state, activists, civil servants, and others were potential targets of military-grade spyware sold only to government clients by the NSO Group. The judgement is yet another indication that Pegasus was misused and unlawful surveillance was carried out by governments to settle personal scores. The judgement will also have implications on Britain’s relationship with the UAE in the coming days. Findings of the Court Haya’s phone was ascertained to have been hacked 11 times in July and August last year with Sheikh Mohammed’s “express or implied authority”, The Guardian said in another report. “Firstly, it is obvious that the father (Sheikh Mohammed), above any other person in the world, is the probable originator of the hacking. No…
