Poland Just Charged Its Own Spy Chiefs for Using Pegasus on 600 Political Targets

Poland's National Prosecutors' Office has filed criminal charges against two former intelligence chiefs for using Pegasus, the Israeli made spyware capable of silently infiltrating phones and capturing everything from messages to microphone recordings. The charges mark a rare case of a European government holding its own security officials criminally accountable for surveillance abuses.

Who Was Charged

Piotr Pogonowski, who headed Poland's ABW internal security agency from 2016 to 2022, and Maciej Materka, who led the SKW military counterintelligence service from 2018 to 2022, were both charged on February 25, 2026. Prosecutors allege the two men approved the use of Pegasus despite knowing their agencies lacked the required IT security accreditation for the software.

According to the charges, they deployed the spyware "despite being aware of the risk of compromising" classified and top secret information. Each faces up to three years in prison for failing in their official duties. Both denied the allegations and refused to provide explanations during questioning.

What Pegasus Can Do

Pegasus, built by Israel's NSO Group, is one of the most powerful surveillance tools ever created. Once installed on a target's phone, typically through a zero click exploit that requires no action from the victim, it can access photos, passwords, call logs, and all communications including encrypted messaging apps. It can also silently activate the device's microphone and camera.

The spyware has been documented in use against journalists, human rights activists, and political figures across dozens of countries. What makes the Poland case significant is that a democratic government is now prosecuting its own intelligence officials for deploying it.

The Scale of the Surveillance

Nearly 600 people were targeted for surveillance using Pegasus under Poland's previous Law and Justice (PiS) government, which purchased the spyware in 2017. The targets included political opponents, journalists, lawyers, and activists. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has revealed that his wife and daughter were also among those surveilled.

The two intelligence chiefs are not the only ones facing prosecution. Former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who held office from 2015 to 2023, faces far more serious charges carrying up to 25 years in prison. Prosecutors allege he used funds earmarked for crime victims to purchase Pegasus specifically for monitoring political opponents. A former PiS deputy justice minister was indicted in October 2025, and a former deputy anti corruption chief was charged with unlawfully sharing material obtained through Pegasus.

A Pattern Across Europe

Poland is not the only European country grappling with Pegasus abuses. Spain's High Court shelved its own investigation into the targeting of senior politicians with the spyware after Israeli authorities refused to cooperate with five requests for information. In Israel itself, members of a governmental probe into unauthorized police use of Pegasus recently resigned, alleging that law enforcement officials coordinated efforts to obstruct their work.

The European Parliament's PEGA committee previously found evidence of Pegasus use in Poland, Hungary, Spain, and Greece, calling for stronger oversight of surveillance technologies across the EU. In Hungary, the government has now gone further: it recently charged journalist Szabolcs Panyi with espionage after he exposed Russian ties to Orbán's government, having previously targeted him with Pegasus. Despite these recommendations, enforcement has been inconsistent, making Poland's criminal charges a notable exception.

Why This Matters for Everyone

The Poland case illustrates a fundamental tension in digital privacy. Governments purchase surveillance tools with the stated goal of fighting terrorism and serious crime. But once those tools exist within an intelligence agency, the temptation to use them against domestic political opponents, journalists, and activists has proven difficult to resist.

Pegasus works because modern phones are designed to be always connected and always on. The same features that make smartphones useful, constant internet access, background app processing, and sensor integration, also make them vulnerable to sophisticated exploitation. No amount of strong passwords or two factor authentication protects against a zero click exploit that never requires the user to do anything.

Protecting Yourself

While consumer grade defenses cannot fully stop a tool like Pegasus, there are steps that reduce your exposure to surveillance:

• Keep your devices updated. Most zero click exploits target known vulnerabilities that patches have already fixed
• Enable Lockdown Mode on Apple devices if you are a journalist, activist, or anyone with a heightened threat model
• Minimize your digital footprint. The less data on your phone, the less an attacker can extract
• Use encrypted communication tools and be aware that even these can be compromised if the device itself is infected
• Watch for unusual phone behavior such as unexplained battery drain, overheating, or unexpected data usage

Accountability as a Precedent

The criminal charges against Pogonowski and Materka send a message that using surveillance technology outside legal boundaries has consequences, even for intelligence officials. Whether these prosecutions lead to convictions remains to be seen, but the fact that charges were filed at all sets Poland apart from countries where similar abuses have been met with silence or obstruction.

For citizens everywhere, the case is a reminder that government surveillance capabilities will always outpace the legal frameworks meant to constrain them. The protections that matter most are not technical but institutional: independent oversight, transparent legal processes, and the political will to hold officials accountable when those processes fail.