The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation has issued a statement to deny allegations over the surveillance of journalists and other individuals.
The claims, published by international media organisations, allege the use of spyware to intercept information from people’s mobile devices.
In the statement issued last night, the ministry said: "The allegations made by recent press reports claiming that the UAE is amongst a number of countries accused of alleged surveillance targeting of journalists and individuals have no evidentiary basis and are categorically false.”
The allegations centre on a data leak of more than 50,000 phone numbers from around the world. These numbers are believed to have been selected as those of people of interest to government clients of NSO Group of Israel which developed the technology to assist nations to track and monitor criminals and terrorists.
Through its lawyers, NSO said the news organisations that made the allegations had made “incorrect assumptions” about which clients use the technology.
