MBABANE: King Mswati’s police were denied a license to a spying technology system by Micro System(MSAB)amid human rights violations in this tiny Kingdom of eSwatini.
This contained in highly classified State intelligence documents obtained by this publication’s investigation unit in midst of a crackdown on pro-democracy activists and human rights defenders by Mswati’s security forces.
A spying system license is a code provided by a manufacturer of a spying software, it is used by State detectives and private investigators to obtain electronic evidence.
But these softwares come with strict regulatory conditions, most manufacturing companies always guard against it’s abuse in the violations of human rights including the right to privacy.
The spying software works after the investigator completed the installation process into the targeted cellphone, if not deactivated, other similar softwares maybe also monitor communication, location or enable the investigator to spy private meetings attended by the owner of the cellphone.
An independent investigation conducted by this Swaziland News obtained a bundle of State intelligence documents, the documentary evidence was collaborated by police insiders who revealed that the spying system was supposed to be used when retrieving evidence in cell phones belonging to the incarcerated pro-democracy Members of Parliament(MPs) Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube.
“This software was supposed to be used when retrieving deleted messages in the MPs cellphones but we failed to get the license,” said the police insider.
It has been disclosed that after failing to obtain the license, the State has been struggling to present credible electronic evidence against the pro-democracy MPs facing politically motivated terrorism charges.
In a letter by MSAB’s Mikael Falkoven addressed to the police, the company based in Sweden said they submitted an application on behalf of the police but unfortunately, the application was rejected.
“Due to the regulatory changes the XRY software that has been supplied to you in the past through our partner Risk Diversion Ltd is now under export control which is governed by the Swedish Inspectorate of Strategic products(ISP). We have submitted an application for export authorization for Royal Eswatini Police Service to the ISP but the request has been rejected hence we cannot grant you the renewal of your XRY Logical and Physical licenses. We do appreciate that you are working with MSAB products and maybe present circumstances may change so that we will be able to service you again in the future,” reads a letter dated 02 June 2021, addressed to Lucky Tsabedze who works within the police spying department.
Phindile Vilakati, the police Spokesperson had not responded at the time of compiling this report.
It has been gathered that police officer Lucky Tsabedze testified against the pro-democracy MPs on Thursday, however, his evidence as undermined by the failure to obtain the license.
Reached for comments, Sicelo Mngomezulu,a South African Correspondent Attorney representing the pro-democracy MPs revealed that the issue of the technology spying system whose license was rejected was revealed in court.
“Yesterday during the testimony of Constable of Lucky Tsabedze, we heard how the Swaziland Police did not have the licence for the XRY System used to extract deleted texts from cell phones. When the MPs were arrested on 25 July 2021, the licence had already been revoked. He battled to explain how the police managed to extract data from MP Dube's cell phone, yet could not do the same in MP Mabuza's cell phone,”said the lawyer.
The police Headquarters.