Saturday, December 10, 2016

Israeli cellebrite software used to prosecute tortured dissident

"Cellebrite would be in good company, too: Bahrain relies on a variety of technology firms to keep tabs on its people, including Nokia-Siemens, FinFisher, and Netsweeper. Notably, just two weeks before Singace’s arrest, another Bahraini dissident, Naji Fateel, a human rights activist and blogger, was arrested suddenly at his home and subjected to equally brutal treatment." "According to a source with direct knowledge of Fateel’s prosecution (who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal), the data vacuumed off of his Samsung phone wasn’t just used against him in court, but used as a basis for suspicion, evidence of criminality, and pretext for torture: “Naji’s and the others’ phone contact was mentioned to them as evidence against them during their interrogation in CID … the torture happened in CID.” " (thanks Amir)