DistantNews
Support us
🇮🇱 Israel /Crime & Justice

UK Supreme Court rejects Bahrain immunity claim in dissidents’ spyware lawsuit

From Jerusalem Post · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Outcome reported
  • Bahrain cannot claim state immunity to block a lawsuit by two dissidents alleging their laptops were hacked with spyware.
  • The UK Supreme Court ruled by a 3-to-2 majority that the alleged surveillance occurred in Britain, falling under an exception to state immunity.
  • The dissidents sued Bahrain in London for damages for psychiatric harm, and their case can now proceed.

Bahrain's claim of state immunity has been rejected by the United Kingdom's Supreme Court, allowing a lawsuit by two dissidents to proceed. The dissidents allege that the Bahraini government hacked their laptops with spyware around 2011.

Saeed Shehabi and Moosa Mohammed, who reside in Britain, filed a lawsuit in London's High Court in 2020. They are seeking damages for alleged "psychiatric harm" caused by the surveillance software, FinSpy, which they claim allowed agents to monitor their work with political prisoners in Bahrain.

Bahrain has denied the hacking allegations and repeatedly sought to use state immunity to dismiss the case. This assertion was previously rejected by London's High Court in 2023 and the Court of Appeal in 2024. The Supreme Court's decision on Monday, by a 3-to-2 majority, affirmed that the alleged hacking falls within the personal injury exception to state immunity under UK law, as the surveillance is considered to have taken place within Britain, even if initiated from abroad. The case can now move forward.

DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Jerusalem Post. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

More Stories

From Our Blog