Saudi Satirist Hacked With Pegasus Spyware Wins Damages in UK Court

A London High Court judge has awarded more than £3 million ($4.1 million) in damages to a Saudi satirist and human rights activist after concluding there was “compelling evidence” that his mobile phone had been compromised using government-grade spyware.

The ruling centres on Ghanem Al-Masarir, a London-based comedian whose widely followed YouTube channel featured satirical criticism of Saudi Arabia and attracted millions of viewers. Al-Masarir filed a lawsuit against the Saudi government in 2019, alleging that his phone had been targeted the previous year with Pegasus, a sophisticated surveillance tool developed by NSO Group and sold exclusively to government clients.

Around the same period that his phone was allegedly hacked, Al-Masarir was physically attacked in London in 2018. He has accused individuals linked to Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, of being behind the assault. Researchers have previously documented that physical intimidation is often used alongside digital surveillance technologies such as Pegasus.

Al-Masarir told the court that the combination of the phone intrusion and the physical attack had a severe impact on his mental health, leading to depression and effectively ending his career as a YouTube content creator.

Saudi Arabia contested the lawsuit, arguing that it was protected by state immunity and therefore could not be prosecuted in the UK courts. The Kingdom had successfully relied on the same argument in an earlier legal case involving allegations that Saudi leadership was responsible for the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside a Saudi consulate in Turkey.

However, the High Court rejected Saudi Arabia’s immunity claim in Al-Masarir’s case. Following that decision, the Saudi government declined to participate further in the proceedings, Reuters reported, which first broke the ruling.

“There is a compelling basis for concluding that [Al-Masarir’s] iPhones were hacked by Pegasus spyware which resulted in the extraction of data from those devices,” Justice Pushpinder Saini wrote in his judgment.

The judge added that the hacking had been “directed or authorised” by the Saudi state or individuals acting on its behalf. Justice Saini also concluded that the Saudi government was likely responsible for the physical assault on Al-Masarir.

It remains unclear whether Saudi Arabia will comply with the damages award or seek to appeal the decision.

A spokesperson for NSO Group, the Israeli firm that develops and sells Pegasus spyware, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., also did not respond.