A senior Egyptian telecoms official confirmed at a press conference on Thursday that the recently-dissolved State Security Investigations Service bugged mobile telephone calls in Egypt.
“The State Security apparatus bugged mobile phone calls without the knowledge of the service providers,” said Amr Badawi, head of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.
At the press conference, Badawi also said that Israel is unable to bug local mobile calls made by officials, in apparent contradiction to charges recently leveled against an alleged Jordanian spy for Israel.
“It can only bug international calls,” he noted, adding that only the local mobile phone networks in Rafah can be bugged by Israel as they are close to the border.
“We asked the service providers to weaken the signal in border areas,” he said.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
