Charges against Nexa Technologies Dropped

The Paris Court of Appeal ordered, on Wednesday, to drop charges against Nexa Technologies and four of its executives who were accused since 2021 of complicity in torture and enforced disappearance by selling cyber-surveillance equipment to Egypt.
The company and its staff were accused of having sold this equipment to Cairo, allowing the regime of Pres. Al-Sissi to crack down on his opponents.
The investigations were initiated in 2017 following a lawsuit filed by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the French Human Rights League, with the support of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS).
The lawsuit was based on a survey conducted by Télérama magazine, which revealed in March 2014 the sale of a €10 million surveillance system to counter “the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Nexa’s “Cerebro” program allows tracking in real-time the electronic communications of a target, from an email address or a phone number for example.
Nexa was also accused in 2013 of having sold a program to late Libya’s Pres. Muammar Gaddafi, allowing him to arrest Libyan opponents from 2007 to 2011.