The pro-independence speaker of Catalonia's regional parliament Roger Torrent said on Tuesday that he had been the target of political espionage via phone tapping, accusing the Spanish government of being either complicit or negligent. Tensions between Catalonia's separatist regional leaders and the Madrid government have been high for years, and a report in The Guardian and El Pais newspapers that Torrent's phone was tapped is unlikely to help. 'In Spain, political espionage is being carried out against political adversaries,' Torrent said. 'If the Spanish government had knowledge of this, it would have been complicit in a crime. If it had no knowledge of it, it would be a very worrisome symptom of political negligence and lack of awareness of alleged illegal practices.' The Spanish prime minister's office said earlier on Tuesday the government was 'not aware' of any such spying and added: 'Any intervention on a mobile is always carried out in accordance with the law that requires judicial authorization.' A spokesman for Torrent said he was 'not involved in criminal activity such as terrorism or drug trafficking that would justify a judicial order to intervene on his phone.' The Guardian and El Pais wrote that Torrent and two other separatists were warned by researchers working with Facebook's instant messaging service WhatsApp that their phones had been broken into with a spyware called 'Pegasus,' made by Israeli company NSO Group. NSO, whose customers include law enforcement and governments around the world, declined to say whether it had sold its Pegasus software to Spain. It said the software is operated 'solely by authorized government agencies to fight terror and serious crime, and protect public safety.' Facebook declined to comment on the allegation that Torrent's phone was tapped. WhatsApp said last year that 1,400 of its users had been targeted by Pegasus. It said the attack exploited its video calling system to send malware to mobile devices. Britain's Guardian newspaper, without citing a source, said WhatsApp believed the attacks in Spain occurred over a two week period in April to May 2019, when the 1,400 users were allegedly targeted by the spyware. The Pegasus spyware has been linked to political surveillance in Mexico, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, according to the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, which researches digital surveillance. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, an NSO spokesperson explained that “NSO software is operated in line with our industry-leading governance policies solely by authorized government agencies to fight terrorism and serious crime, and protect public safety. “Due to the confidentiality constraints, we cannot confirm or deny which such authorities use our technology. “Once again, speculative comments from CitizenLab only serve to highlight its continued, naive and ulterior agenda that fails to competently address the challenges faced by law enforcement agencies. “In line with our Human Rights Policy, we take our responsibilities seriously and if warranted, will initiate an investigation. “NSO is transparent as feasible in response to allegations that our products have been misused, while respecting the confidentiality obligations we have to our sovereign state and state agency clients. The correspondence with UN Special Rapporteur David Kaye, which has previously been provided to the media, contains a fulsome description of our human rights processes. “We will cooperate with any competent authority investigation if initiated, in parallel to our internal procedures.”