The task of the CBA was to find the crime at all costs. The services searched and it seems that they found nothing, because Krzysztof Brejza was never questioned by the prosecutor’s office, he was never charged – said Łukasz Ruciński, co-author of the report “Operation code name ‘LIZZER'” on TVN24, in which the journalists of “Superwizjer ” revealed the details of the surveillance of the current senator of the Civic Platform. – This operation was the most important case in the entire CBA for a certain period – he added.
Central Anti-Corruption Bureau used Pegasus spyware against Krzysztof Brejza – a politician of the opposition Civic Platform. Reporters from “Superwizjer” Łukasz Ruciński and Maciej Duda reached important witnesses and never published documents that show the backstage of this surveillance.
Ruciński: the services were to find the crime at all costs
TVN24 Łukasz Ruciński talked about the backstage of the reportage on Saturday. – We had the opportunity to access very unique documents. Very rarely, journalists have the opportunity to obtain documents from the course of a special operation at all, he explained.
He added that “these documents clearly indicate that Pegasus was used against Krzysztof Brejza.” – These documents show that the CBA obtained over 80,000 messages from the senator’s phone. (…) The scale of these activities, the style in which it was done, is simply a crude operation of the CBA. The services were tasked with finding the crime at all costs, he assessed.
– They searched, searched and it seems that they found nothing, because Krzysztof Brejza was never even questioned in the prosecutor’s office, no charges were ever brought against him – he added.
Dorota and Krzysztof BrejzPAP/Radek Pietruszka
Ruciński noted that the services used “the most invasive tool available”. “That’s Pegasus, actually a cyberweapon, he has access to everything – to the calendar, to the location, he can watch and eavesdrop on us live, he has access to all our passwords, to what we browse on the Internet. It is impossible to spy on a person more than with this program – he said.
– We managed to reach a number of informants who revealed to us the backstage of this operation. Thanks to this, we were able to practically disassemble it into prime factors. For a certain period, this operation was the most important case in the entire CBA. For many, it was a chance and a springboard to a great career. Later, everyone started to run away from this operation, stay as far away from it as possible, because they knew that it really led nowhere – the journalist of “Superwizjer” explained.
“Operation LIZARD code name”. Łukasz Ruciński on the backstage of the “Superwizjer” reportageTVN24
Ruciński about the Brejz family: it’s a really hard experience for them
Łukasz Ruciński was also asked about the heroes of the reportage, the Brejz family. – Their life at the beginning was half a year of wiretapping, when they were wiretapped with Pegasus. Later, from then until now, it’s their fight to explain the whole operation. They are investigating every lead, trying to make sure that everyone knows how it really went, he said.
“It’s a really hard experience for them. You fall asleep and wake up knowing you’ve been under surveillance. You read your news, as it later turned out to be manipulated, on government television strips. It definitely affects people,” he explained.
Main photo source: PAP/Radek Pietruszka