Catalonia's regional leader on Friday denied allegations by Spain's spy agency CNI that he had secretly led a radical separatist protest group, which he said CNI had used as a pretext to snoop on him. Pere Aragones told reporters he had received on Thursday some heavily redacted declassified CNI documents related to the alleged espionage he had been subject to, and he called for those responsible to be held accountable. Canada-based group Citizen Lab that studies information controls that pose threats to human rights said in 2022 that in the wake of a failed independence bid in 2017, more than 60 people linked to the Catalan separatist movement, including Aragones, had been targeted by Pegasus spyware.