This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Amesys' Mittäterschaft bei Folterungen: Kontrolle des Exports von Üb...

The Paris Court Prosecutor decided on 21 May 2012 to probe the Amesys company, a BULL’s subsidiary, over complicity of torture in Libya under Kadhafi. The investigation, which follows a criminal complaint jointly filed by the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and its French member LDH in October 2011, is conducted by Céline Hildenbrandt, a judge from the Paris Court section specialized in crimes against humanity, genocides and war crimes.

Amesys, a French technology company specialized in security systems and acquired in 2010 by BULL, is accused by FIDH and LDH of "offences committed through the provision to the Kadhafi regime, from 2007, of a surveillance system to monitor communications of the Libyan people." The company objected again to this accusation, as it did in September 2011 after the scandal started. Amesys claimed that its contract with the Libyan authorities was concluded in 2007, “at a time when the international community was in the process of diplomatic rapprochement with Libya, which was looking to fight against terrorism and acts perpetrated by Al Qaeda”. “All Amesys' business dealings comply rigorously with the legal and regulatory requirements set out in international, European and French conventions”, the company added.

These justifications were a tentative to respond to the evidence initially provided by the Wall Street Journal regarding the use of Amesys software by Libyan agents to monitor the Libyan population, spying on their emails and chats. The WSJ journalists revealed how they found files containing intercepted communications and a training manual for Amesys surveillance software called Eagle, in an abandoned Internet monitoring center in Tripoli, right after the collapse of the Kadhafi’s regime in end August 2011. In March 2012, BULL announced that it was putting on sale its subsidiary’s activities related to Eagle, a software for Internet communication interceptions. BULL argued that these activities were not strategic, and the Eagle software was “originally designed to chase paedophiles, terrorists and drug traffickers”, which is yet another example of the mission creep risk conveyed by technologies and policies initially justified by legitimate purposes. As of today, these activities are still on sale, and Amesys is still a BULL subsidiary.

According to FIDH and LDH, the opening of the probe will allow to shed light both on companies helping through commercial agreements dictatorial regimes to reinforce the repression of their populations and on the crimes committed under Kadhafi’s regime. One may also expect that the investigation will explore the role of the French government, under Sarkozy’s presidency (2007-2012), in the selling of surveillance software to Libya and other authoritarian countries by French technology companies. Back in March this year, the former French government stated that the technology sold by Amesys was not categorized as conventional arms nor even as dual-use goods and technologies, which export is controlled according to the Wassenaar Arrangement, and thus it was not aware of Amesys’ technology export.

While this judicial investigation is related to a specific case, its opening strengthens the need for political steps to be taken by governments, in order to strictly regulate commercial exports of surveillance systems by commercial companies, especially those established in States championing human rights – if only in their official discourse.

In December 2011, Wikileaks published, in cooperation with various newspapers and NGOs, a full set of brochures and manuals of surveillance software and tools from Amesys as well as from other companies, showing how diversified, extended and powerful are these systems, sold by Western (and non Western) companies to authoritarian regimes all over the world, and used as well in so-called democratic countries.

It is now time to seriously consider strong political and legal measures for the control of surveillance technologies, software and equipments, at the design, development, selling on national markets or exporting, and use steps. The European Union should take the lead in this process, and the joint initiative taken by Nelly Kroes (EC Vice-President responsible for the Digital Agenda) and Catherine Ashton (EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) with the "No Disconnect Strategy" could be a perfect vehicle to identify, with all relevant actors, appropriate measures at the European and Global levels to be taken in this respect.

FIDH-LDH Press Release: "Amesys case referred to French Justice" (22.05.2012, only in French)
http://www.fidh.org/La-justice-francaise-saisie-du

French firm Amesys probed over "complicity in torture" (22.05.2012)
http://www.france24.com/en/20120522-libya-france-gaddafi-amesys-war-cr...

BULL faces again the Amesys Scandal (22.05.2012, only in French)
http://www.lemonde.fr/libye/article/2012/05/22/bull-de-nouveau-confron...

Libya: Amesys objects to the complicity of torture accusation (22.05.2012, only in French)
http://www.lepoint.fr/monde/libye-amesys-conteste-l-accusation-de-comp...

Wikileaks’s publication of ‘The Spy Files’ (01.12.2011)
http://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/list/company-name/amesys.html

Amesys press release (01.09.2011)
http://www.wcm.bull.com/internet/pr/new_rend.jsp?DocId=673289&lang...

Firms Aided Libyan Spies (30.08.2011)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904199404576538721260166...

FIDH-LDH Press Release: ‘FIDH and LDH file a complaint concerning the responsability of the company AMESYS in relation to acts of torture’ (19.10.2011)
http://www.fidh.org/FIDH-and-LDH-file-a-complaint

Wassenaar Arrangement
http://www.wassenaar.org

EC joint Communication on "A Partnership For Democracy And Shared Prosperity With The Southern Mediterranean" (08.03.2011)
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0200:FI...

EC Workshop on FIRE and the "No Disconnect Strategy" (07.05.2012)
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/fire/events/evwsfirends_en.html

(Contribution by Meryem Marzouki (EDRI member IRIS - France)