MPs have accused the government of misleading parliament over its purchase of a police wiretapping system from a controversial defence contractor based in Israel.

The justice ministry agreed earlier this year to acquire the data and phone tapping mechanism from Cognyte, at a time when prime minister Dick Schoof headed the department’s civil service team, NRC reported this week.

The justice minister was VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz, who was also negotiating the formation of the new cabinet with three other right-wing parties including Geert Wilders’s PVV.

Cognyte was not named as the supplier and documents submitted to parliament described the development as an “upgrade” rather than a brand new system. It was bought after two previous attempts to install Israel-built systems ended in failure, NRC reported, quoting sources involved in the process.

The contractor is a controversial choice because two years ago it supplied the military dictatorship in Myanmar, which used the technology to monitor politicians and journalists.

“Very positive”

The cost of the system has not been disclosed, but NRC reported that police spent a total of €3.8 million trying to get its precdecessor to work, an amount that was never declared to parliament.

Justice minister David van Weel said senior police commanders were “very positive” about the “highly promising” new system and it could be ready to go live in the first half of next year.

But MPs from both coalition and opposition parties queried both the source of the technology and the police’s enthusiasm for using it.

Michel van Nispel of the socialist party (SP) said the justice ministry had misled parliament by describing the new system as an “upgrade”, but Van Weel insisted it was a continuation of the system purchased in 2019.

Technicians risk

Van Nispen also asked if Israeli technicians would be involved in installing and maintaining the system, which could have consequences for Dutch national security, but Van Weel said it could be maintained without them.

“We have taken steps to deal with the risks where Israeli technicians are needed for the old system,” Van Weel said. “They cannot access the intercepted information.”

Lilian Helder, justice spokeswoman for the farmers’ party BBB, said she had heard from police personnel whose view of the new system “deviated a great deal” from Van Weel’s assessment, while Jesse Six Dijkstra of NSC said he doubted if “all the hurdles will be overcome in time”.

Police said in a response to NOS that the delivery of the system had been delayed by “the situation in Israel, among other things,” but they expected it to be ready to go live next year.