Serbian police used spyware to keep track of opponents and journalists, Amnesty says

BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia's secret service and police have been spying on journalists and opposition activists by installing a spyware on their mobile phones, Amnesty International said Monday.

The watchdog's report, backed by testimonies of those who claim their phones have been hacked in recent months, says the spy software was used to unlock phones to capture covert screenshots and copy contact lists, which were then uploaded to a government-controlled server.

The report titled ''A Digital Prison: Surveillance and the Suppression of Civil Society in Serbia" said the Serbian police and the Security Information Agency (BIA) used the spyware to infect devices while their owners were detained or interviewed by police.

''Our investigation reveals how Serbian authorities have deployed surveillance technology and digital repression tactics as instruments of wider state control and repression directed against civil society,'' said Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International's deputy regional director for Europe.

Serbia's police said in a statement that the Amnesty report is ''absolutely incorrect,'' but also added that "the forensic tool is used in the same way by other police forces around the world.''

Serbia's spy agency said on its website that it ''works exclusively in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Serbia.''

''Therefore, we are not even able to comment on nonsensical allegations from their (Amnesty) text, just as we do not normally comment on similar content," BIA said.

The Amnesty report comes as President Aleksandar Vucic is facing one of the biggest challenges to more than a decade of his increasingly autocratic rule, with widening anti-government protests that so far have been largely peaceful.

Protests have been led by university students and opposition activists following the collapse last month of a concrete canopy at a railway station in the country's north that killed 15 people on Nov. 1.

Many in Serbia believe rampant corruption and nepotism among state officials led to sloppy work on the building reconstruction, which was part of a wider railroad project with Chinese state companies.

Vucic has accused Western intelligence services, NGO groups and foreign media of conducting a ''hybrid warfare'' against him and his country by illegally financing the protests.

The Belgrade Center for Security Policy, an NGO group, strongly condemned the authorities' misuse of digital technologies for surveillance and demanded an immediate, transparent and independent investigation into the allegations reported by Amnesty International. It also called for the prosecution of those responsible within the police and the Security and Information Agency.

''In a country where civil protests are growing in scale, and discontent with the regime is becoming louder, these practices represent a direct attack on fundamental freedoms, including the right to peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, and the right of association,'' the group's statement said.

Serbia, which formally seeks European Union membership, has been forging close ties with Russia and China, including their spy agencies in what officials said was a joint action against the so-called ''colored revolutions'' —- street protests against repressive regimes.

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Associated Press writer Jovana Gec contributed to this report.