Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

England and Wales High Court awards £3m to Saudi dissident for Pegasus surveillance and London assault; state immunity defence rejected

Published on: 05 February 2026

Published by a Law360 reporter

Legal News

Article summary

The High Court found that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covertly installed the Pegasus spyware on Ghanem Al-Masarir’s iPhones, so as to enable tracking of his location, the interception of calls, and surveillance through the handsets’ microphones and cameras. Judge Pushpinder Saini determined that Saudi Arabia had no realistic prospect of successfully contesting Al-Masarir’s allegation that the Kingdom was behind a physical assault on him in central London. Taken together, the harassment and invasion of privacy left the activist with 'severe psychiatric injury', the judge said. Al-Masarir, a Saudi national resident in the UK since 2003, has since 2008 been a vocal critic of the Saudi royal family on YouTube. According to the judgment, his videos have attracted over 345 million views. In November 2019, Al-Masarir sued the Saudi Government for intrusive, secret surveillance in June 2018, which he said 'touched on every aspect of his private life'...

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