President of the Assembly of Serbia Ana Brnabic rejected allegations that the state monitored students in the blockade with sophisticated mobile phone spy software, after claims that 14 students and their associates were covered by such a program.
Brnabić, who was a guest on Euronews Serbia television, answered the question of whether the state had any knowledge of the fact that students were subject to such supervision, answered briefly: "Absolutely not".
At the same time, she expressed doubts about the allegations presented at the press conference, assessing that she sees more illogicality in them.
"Why would anyone use it on some 'random' group of 14, of 12, of two people"?
Brnabić particularly questioned the claim that very expensive and sophisticated software was used for surveillance. As she stated, it is not clear to her why such a tool would be used against a randomly selected group of people.
"If it's such an expensive piece of spyware, why would anyone use it on a 'random' group of 14, of 12, of two people? Because we haven't heard any evidence that it was actually used," said Brnabić.
She also questioned the explanation according to which the students were allegedly monitored for participating in the "Student in Every Village" campaign.
Brnabić assessed that the mere fact that individuals participated in that campaign does not explain why someone would use such technology against them.
The President of the Assembly of Serbia also referred to the students' claims about traces that, according to their statements, indicated that their phones had been compromised.
As she said, it is illogical to her that someone using an expensive and sophisticated surveillance program would simultaneously leave traces that could reveal its use.
"If you are already using such software, let's say someone somewhere in the world is using it, how idiotic would it be to apologize, to use software that you paid for, as they say, several million euros, and then to leave all traces," said Brnabić.
Speaking about the findings of the Sher Foundation and the Amnesty International organization, which supported the allegations of the use of spyware, Brnabić said that she did not believe in those allegations.
"No evidence presented"
"I'll go back to saying that I don't believe a single word they've said," she said.
She also stated that, in her opinion, no concrete evidence was presented at the conference that would confirm that the surveillance was actually carried out.
As an additional question, Brnabić also mentioned the warnings that users of certain devices can receive when the system registers a possible attack or the installation of spyware.
“Why would anyone use software where Apple warns you that software is installed?” she asked.
Allegations of surveillance of students have reopened the issue of using sophisticated tools to monitor mobile devices, while the government rejects claims that the state is responsible for such surveillance.
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