German prosecutors denounce illegal sale of spyware to Türkiye

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German prosecutors have charged four people with unauthorized sales of espionage software to Turkish security services, alleging it was used just days before an important election in an attempt to spy on the country’s opposition.

The charges, which were filed in a regional court in Munich, say former employees of a defunct company called FinFisher deliberately flouted German export rules by routing sales through a Bulgarian company to circumvent permits required to sell surveillance outside the EU.

FinSpy software allegedly fell into the hands of Turkish security services, which prosecutors say targeted activists in 2017, using fake websites allegedly linked to Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the longtime leader of Turkey’s largest opposition party .

German prosecutors said on Monday that FinSpy was “downloaded and distributed in Turkey on previously supplied hardware, followed by training on its use”. The deal between FinFisher and the Turkish government was worth around 5 million euros, according to prosecutors.

The charges were filed just days before the second round of Presidential elections in Türkiyein which Kılıçdaroğlu will face President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Kılıçdaroğlu’s six-party opposition alliance, which performed unexpectedly poorly in the first round of elections on May 14, has consistently claimed that it competed on an unfair playing field, in part because Erdoğan was able to deploy state resources during the campaign.

The Turkish security services’ alleged use of spy software in 2017 came a year after an attempted coup against Erdoğan. The failed coup unleashed a crackdown in the military, government and academia.

The Turkish government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the alleged sale and use of the FinSpy software. The accused persons, whose names have not been disclosed, have not been reached for comment.

German prosecutors began investigating the four suspects in 2019, when several human rights organizations said the software was being used to target opposition in Turkey.

The spyware was placed on a fake website alleged to be associated with Kılıçdaroğlu’s ‘March for Justice’ protesting the post-coup purge launched by Erdoğan’s government, according to the initial complaint filed by rights groups to prosecutors.

FinFisher formally filed for insolvency in 2021, after nearly a decade of commercializing FinSpy, which can access the target’s messages, phone calls, camera and microphone and has been linked to intelligence services around the world.

The company was hacked in 2014, and WikiLeaks later released copies of the software, describing it as “weaponized German surveillance malware.”

Prosecutors said 15 properties, around Monaco and in Romania, were searched as part of the investigation.