Spyware is “dual use” technology or technology that can have military and non-military use. Under EU law, exports of such technologies require a licence from the government of the member state from which the products are being exported.
Last month an NGO in the Netherlands called Lighthouse Reports said it had established that the software had been sold to a notorious militia in Sudan called Rapid Support Forces. Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews has expressed concern about the report and said most Irish people would be “shocked” to learn that an Irish holding company might be connected to a business supplying surveillance software to a successor of the Janjaweed militia in Sudan.
Both Thalestris and Intellexa file the same consolidated group accounts. In the accounts, the activity of Intellexa Ltd is described as providing “intelligence products for law enforcement agencies”. As well as its Irish subsidiaries, the group has four companies in Greece, three in the British Virgin Islands, two in Cyprus, and one in Switzerland, according to the consolidated accounts filed in Ireland.