In July 2021, the Pegasus Project pointed to the Bahraini government as a potential client of NSO Group. The investigation disclosed that the government of Bahrain most likely selected almost 3,000 numbers for potential surveillance with Pegasus.
One month later, Citizen Lab identified nine Bahraini activists whose phones had been successfully hacked with Pegasus between June 2020 and February 2021. The organization attributed with “high confidence” several hacks to the government of Bahrain, adding to previous suspicions of online surveillance from Manama (the government of Bahrain did not answer The Guardian’s request for comment on these findings).
In January 2022, the New York Times revealed that Israel gave the Bahraini government access to Pegasus as a “diplomatic sweetener” to help conclude the Abraham Accords, the 2020 diplomatic pact that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab countries.
The same month, human rights organization Front Line Defenders revealed that the phone of Bahraini human rights defender Ebtisam Al-Saegh was hacked using Pegasus.
In February 2022, with help from rights group Red Line 4 Gulf, Pegasus Project partners disclosed that the government of Bahrain selected high ranking officials close to the government as potential targets for surveillance, including members of the royal family and more than 20 MPs, as well as a US state department official then stationed in Bahrain.
Citizen Lab and Red Line 4 Gulf also found that two Bahraini activists and a journalist were hacked with Pegasus in 2021.