French tech executives indicted after selling surveillance software to Libya, Egypt

Four executives from French tech companies were indicted in France last month for the sale of software to Libya and Egypt that was used to gather information about political opponents who were ultimately tortured, according to a statement by a rights group released on Tuesday. 

In its statement, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) announced that four figures from Amesys and Nexa Technologies, a newer company which bought the software designed by Amesys, were indicted on June 16 and 17 in relation to investigations into the companies opened in relation to Libya in 2011 and Egypt in 2018. 

The indictment is “good news,” according to a representative to the European Union of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights, which joined the FIDH to submit the 2018 complaint regarding the technology’s sale to and use by the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to the French courts. Leslie Piquemal told Mada Masr on Tuesday that she hopes it represents “a step forward toward accountability.” 

On Tuesday, FIDH said the decision shows that French investigating judges allow the possibility that the surveillance companies were complicit in human rights violations. 

The indictment could “precede” the official inclusion of the two companies as legal entities in the case, said FIDH, but added that the investigation is ongoing and that judges could still decide either to dismiss the case or refer it to criminal trial.

Information about the Libyan government’s use of technology designed by Amesys came to light on the back of the WikiLeaks scandal. In 2011, a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that Amesys designed and sold in 2007 a system called Eagle to the Libyan government, which was later used to gather information about political opponents to the Qadhafi regime. 

In 2012, Nexa Technologies was incorporated and took over the business assets of Amesys, including the Eagle program. After FIDH filed a complaint in 2011 requesting that the French courts investigate the claims, an investigation was eventually opened in 2013.

Amesys later admitted to having provided the Qadhafi regime with "analytical material" on "internet connections," while recalling that the contract had been signed in a context of "diplomatic rapprochement" with Libya under then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Agence France Presse reported earlier this month. 

FIDH later acted in 2017 with CIHRS to file a separate complaint against Nexa Technologies for the sale of another surveillance software called CEREBRO, an upgraded version of Eagle, to the Sisi government.

According to an FIDH report in 2017, the CEREBRO software was sold to Egypt via an Emirati company, which acted as an intermediary to allow Nexa Technologies to continue its sales discreetly. The arrangement was encouraged by the French government, a tech expert told FIDH. CEREBRO provided real-time surveillance into the cell phones of targeted citizens and targeted gathering and interception of personal data and metadata. 

The chief executive, general manager and former CEO of Nexa Technologies were all indicted for complicity in torture and forced disappearance in Egypt, judicial sources told the French press.