Security News > 2021 > July > French Tech Firm Charged Over Libya Cyber-Spying
French prosecutors have charged a French IT company that allegedly helped the regime of Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi spy on opposition figures who were later detained and tortured, sources close to the inquiry said Thursday.
Amesys, which is now owned by the Bull technology group, and its former chief, Philippe Vannier, were charged with complicity in acts of torture on June 18, the sources said.
Amesys has acknowledged the tech deal with Libya, which was agreed in the context of a rapprochement between Gaddafi's regime and the West starting in 2007, when Kadhafi visited then French president Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris.
The French inquiry also targets another firm, Nexa Technologies, that is accused of selling an updated version of Amesys's software to the government of Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Olivier Bohbot, the head of Nexa, and two other executives were charged last month with "Complicity in acts of torture and forced disappearances."
London-based rights group Amnesty International welcomed the indictments of both firms as "Unprecedented."