The British Supreme Court has rejected Bahrain's request for immunity in the spyware case
The UK Supreme Court has rejected Bahrain’s motion for sovereign immunity in a lawsuit filed by two activists who alleged they were being monitored using spyware. The decision, passed by a majority of three votes to two, allows the case to proceed in British courts, Al Jazeera English reports.
The lawsuit was filed in the High Court of London in 2020 by journalist Saeed Shehabi and Bahraini refugee Musa Mohammed, both of whom reside in the United Kingdom. They allege that in 2011, the Bahraini government infected their computers with the FinSpy program. According to the plaintiffs, this software was capable of recording keystrokes, tracking their location, and remotely monitoring their activities.
Shehabi is the founder of a Bahraini political party that opposes the rule of the Al Khalifa royal family. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for the psychological harm they allege they suffered.
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Bahrain denies any involvement in the hacking and has insisted that the alleged actions took place outside British jurisdiction, and therefore the state is entitled to immunity. The High Court in London rejected this argument in 2023, and the Court of Appeal upheld the ruling the following year.
The Supreme Court concluded that the alleged surveillance could be considered an act committed in the United Kingdom, since the plaintiffs and their computers were in the country when the spyware allegedly began operating. The ruling sets a precedent under which foreign states can be named as defendants in British courts in cases involving remote surveillance of individuals in the United Kingdom.
