Journalists, lawyers and several famous people have been spied on by Indian hackers hired to protect Qatar’s reputation as part of the World Cup organisation. That writes the British newspaper Sunday Times.
These include people who have criticised the allocation of the World Cup organisation to Qatar. That tournament starts on November 20. In addition, Qatar has come under fire for the ill-treatment of workers in the stadium construction.
Sunday Times journalist Jonathan Calvert, among others, is said to have been a target of the hackers. He was investigating corruption in the allocation of the tournament’s organisation in 2010. French senator Nathalie Goulet, who accused Qatar of supporting Islamist terror, is also said to be a victim.
The hackers are also said to have spied on the former president of the European football association UEFA Michel Platini. He was behind Qatar’s candidacy. The hack is said to have been carried out shortly before Platini was questioned in a corruption investigation surrounding the World Cup.
“The investigation indicates that the hackers’ client is hosting the next World Cup: Qatar,” reporters from the Sunday Times and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism said. Lawyers for the Qatari government deny that. However, the newspaper’s investigation uncovered other hacking cases by the same Indian gang, including at the behest of autocratic regimes.