BRUSSELS (ANP) – Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib is calling the Chinese ambassador to account for hacking into the computer of a Belgian parliamentarian.
Member of Parliament Els van Hoof, who chairs the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, was hacked in 2021 after opening an email. After that, her computer was read for years.
“Members of parliament must be able to work in freedom. That is the foundation of our democracy,” Lahbib writes on X.
American lawsuit
The Belgian parliamentarian’s case came to light through an American lawsuit against seven Chinese accused of espionage against Americans. The Belgian case was also reported in an FBI report. Last month, it was also announced through research in the United States that Dutch parliamentarians Tom van der Lee and Sjoerd Sjoerdsma may have been hacked by the Chinese.
Belgian MP Van Hoof said on Flemish radio that the emails in question appeared to be from an international organization. “The emails were about Donald Trump and human rights. They seemed very innocent and informative. But the intention was to get into our system.”
Van Hoof, Van der Lee and Sjoerdsma are or were members of IPAC, an international association of parliamentarians who monitor human rights in China. The suspicious links were allegedly sent to all European IPAC members.
