(ANSA) - TRIESTE, JAN 28 - The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), an human rights NGO active since 1994, "is taking legal action on behalf of six of its clients before the Hungarian authorities, the European Commission, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and in Israel" in relation to the so-called Pegasus case.

Traces of the Pegasus spyware, developed by the Israeli NSO Group, "were found on the phones of several Hungarian targets, who obviously do not pose any risk to national security, but who have been a source of annoyance to the government," HCLU said in a statement.

The 'Pegasus Project', a consortium of international media including the Guardian, revealed in 2021 that a number of journalists in Hungary had been targeted with Pegasus, The Guardian recalled today. HCLU "aims to expose the practice of unlawful secret surveillance, to have international fora declare that the Hungarian regulation of secret information gathering violates fundamental rights and to prevent politically motivated abuses," the Hungarian-based NGO said.

The six clients are journalists Brigitta Csikász, Dávid Dercsényi, Dániel Németh and Szabolcs Panyi, student activist Adrien Beauduin and a sixth person who requested anonymity.

"This is not a lawsuit for compensation, but one for accessing more information and enforcing more transparency regarding surveillances," investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi told ANSA today. "My personal goal is to try prevent similar despicable surveillances practices used against other journalists and EU citizens in the future. This is not just about the legal action and its outcome, but also about putting pressure both inside and outside Hungary on the Orbán government," Panyi said (ANSA).