Israeli technology company, Cognyte Software Ltd won a tender to sell intercept spyware to a Myanmar state-backed telecommunications firm a month before the February 2021 military coup, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.
Israel hasclaimed it stopped military weapons and military technology transfers to Myanmar following a 2017 ruling by Israel's Supreme Court, but according to information released on January 15, an agreement was reached to sell this intelligence technology.
The complaint, led by well-known Israeli human rights lawyer Eitay Mack who spearheaded the campaign for the Supreme Court ruling, calls for a criminal investigation into the deal.
It accuses Cognyte and unnamed Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials for allegedly encouraging Myanmar's crimes against humanity.
The documents about the deal, provided to Reuters and Mack by activist group Justice for Myanmar, are a January 2021 letter with attachments from Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) to local regulators that list Cognyte as the winning vendor for intercept technology and note the purchase order was issued "by 30th Dec 2020".
Intercept spyware can give authorities the power to listen in on calls, view text messages and web traffic including emails, and track the locations of users without the assistance of telecom and internet firms.
Two people,who did not want to be named, with knowledge of Myanmar’s intercept plansseparately told Reuters the Cognyte system was tested by MPT.
