Hacking gang targeted WC critics: report

AN India-based computer hacking gang targeted critics of the Qatar World Cup, an investigation by British journalists said on Sunday, as the Qatari government furiously denied it had played any part in commissioning the eavesdropping.

A database leaked to Britain’s Sunday Times and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed the hacking of a dozen lawyers, journalists and famous people from 2019 ‘commissioned by one particular client’, the newspaper and the bureau said in a statement.

‘This investigation points strongly to this client being the host of (the) World Cup: Qatar,’ it said, prompting the Qatari authorities to describe the allegation as ‘patently false and without merit’.

Among those targeted was Michel Platini, the former head of European football.

Platini, who was hacked ahead of talks with French police about World Cup related graft claims, told AFP he was ‘surprised and deeply shocked’ by the report.

He said he would be exploring all possible legal avenues over what appeared to be a serious ‘violation’ of his privacy.