The Security Information Agency (BIA), Serbia’s civilian security service, dismissed the September allegations that students and opposition politicians had been spied on as “purely trivial sensationalism” in a statement on September 3, as translated by the broadcaster N1, and said it operates strictly within Serbian law.

The two cases extend a wave that SHARE reported on September 2, when it said at least 14 people in Serbia, including student activists, an opposition MP and a local councilor, had been targeted with spyware since the start of the year. Twelve of them had received Apple Threat Notifications in August, the month Apple warned users in 110 countries.

One was Jelena Kontić, a student whose Pegasus infection the Citizen Lab confirmed. The other two had a new version of NoviSpy, an Android spyware, installed on their phones.