Activists denounce police hacker they slept with: ‘I feel raped’ – Job

Six women in Barcelona are suing the Spanish state for deceiving them into romantic relationships with a police infiltrator. Adorned in messy decor and tattoos, among other things, the secret agent appeared in the alternative scene of the Catalan capital in 2020. Danny turned out to be a friendly guest and quickly became a beloved appearance at the anti-capitalist social center La Cinètika, a former cinema, where left-wing activists congregate To some extent. Not only was he involved in business, but he also had relationships with at least eight activists.

The six women taking legal action against the hacker and the police accuse him of sexual assault and invasion of privacy, among other things. The Home Office is also being sued, taking ultimate responsibility for police policy, The Guardian writes.

“I feel raped,” one of the victims told local newspaper La Directa. “I was with a guy who, it turns out, I didn’t know at all and it really scared me.” The woman has been in a relationship with Danny for about a year and now suffers from anxiety, disgust, and a sense of helplessness. “If I’d known he was a cop, I wouldn’t have started anything with him. I couldn’t have made this decision on my own. Nothing justified the state and police meddling in my life.”

Officially, the police and other state agencies have not responded to the revelations by La Directa newspaper, which discovered and published the hack after it emerged that spyware had been placed on the phones of dozens of Catalan independence movement activists. Police sources confirm that the agent works for a department focused on intelligence gathering.

Attorneys representing the women stated that they were denied their right to informed consent, among other things. “It’s not about lying about some things, it’s about falsifying the entire identity of the person involved.” The central point is that the deception takes place on behalf of the government in a politically colored process. It is also suggested that infiltration is unnecessary because it relates to anarchism but also to unionist circles that practice a high degree of openness. Hacking is also seen as an attempt to incriminate activists. The case does not stand alone. Similar infiltrations also occurred in other cities.

The Guardian reports a similar situation in the UK. There, police hackers even fathered children from deceived activists.