Adversary Intelligence — 2026-07-18

Former Moroccan Intelligence Officer Reveals DGST Deployed Pegasus Against Journalist Through UAE-Linked Intermediary

BLUFNamed sourcing of the DGST-to-NSO procurement chain through an Emirati cutout erodes Morocco's plausible deniability and reopens its exposure to European human-rights litigation it previously deflected.

A former DGST officer using the pseudonym "Safir" told OCCRP and Forbidden Stories that Morocco's domestic intelligence service deployed Pegasus against journalist Omar Radi through an Emirati intermediary, FSSYS Maroc, a subsidiary of Al Fahad Smart Systems later acquired by EDGE, the UAE's state-owned defense conglomerate 12. Safir said NSO demonstrated Pegasus for DGST officers at a Rabat villa in 2017, and that DGST director Abdeljalil Taki's unit routed target phone numbers through the intermediary or directly to NSO for infection 12. A second Moroccan intelligence source, speaking anonymously, corroborated procurement of Pegasus access through an intermediary and the targeting of a journalist 1. Reporters separately obtained a document showing NSO co-founder Shalev Hulio entered Panama in 2013 on an Israeli diplomatic passport, which Hulio denies holding; Moroccan authorities, NSO Group, and Israeli officials did not respond to requests for comment 12.

Analysis
Pseudonymous testimony from a former DGST officer supplies the first named procurement chain behind Morocco's Pegasus use, tying director Abdeljalil Taki's unit to an Emirati intermediary structured to sever direct payment ties between Rabat and NSO, an architecture now publicly attributed to Al Fahad Smart Systems and linked to Abu Dhabi's Edge conglomerate. Prior 2021 Pegasus Project reporting already established the Radi and Monjib targeting; this account adds the UAE-brokered mechanism, names the DGST officials who ran it, and surfaces NSO co-founder Shalev Hulio's undisclosed Israeli diplomatic passport, undercutting NSO's arm's-length claim from the Israeli state. The core claim rests on single-source testimony corroborated only by one anonymous Moroccan intelligence contact, and the leak may reflect one faction's version of an internally contested procurement history rather than a verified consortium finding. Confirmed, it exposes Morocco to renewed defamation and human-rights litigation in European courts where it previously prevailed on denial alone.

2 sources