Pavlović on Spyware: The BIA Volunteered Information

Miloš Pavlović says the BIA effectively drew attention to itself by responding to allegations that spyware had targeted students and opposition politicians, even though, in his view, nobody had specifically accused the agency. The deputy leader of the opposition Narodni pokret Srbije made the remarks on the Novi dan program.

Instead of describing the claims as “ordinary trivial sensationalism,” Pavlović said, the BIA should determine who used the spyware. He argued that monitoring political opponents is not new in Serbia. The methods, he said, date back to the 1990s but have become more advanced.

Pavlović said he noticed signs of possible surveillance last year while working on the Generalštab affair. Information known to only a small number of people, and which he had discussed by phone while dealing with evidence and a potential Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office indictment, appeared the next day on Informer television’s “Collegium” program. At first, he considered the possibility that this was a coincidence, but he also suspected that his phone conversations had been intercepted.

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They volunteered information themselves. I did not see anyone specifically target them, but I find it interesting that they immediately issued a statement distancing themselves and portraying it as some kind of sensation.

Several weeks ago, he said, Apple notified him that someone had tried to access his phone ID account. After speaking with friends, he concluded that the alert could indicate that his phone had been infected remotely. Pavlović said he believed the program was Pegasus, which he contrasted with domestic spyware that requires physical access to a device.

He described such software as illegal and said it is used to gather information on political opponents rather than for criminal proceedings. He also questioned why President Aleksandar Vučić’s earlier claim that he had been wiretapped had not produced a court outcome. The BIA has rejected the allegations as sensationalism.

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The program is used only against political opponents to obtain information.